


War of Monsters

by AngelAxexinf



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clones, Gen, Jedi, war of monsters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-15 09:43:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 52,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1300378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelAxexinf/pseuds/AngelAxexinf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The guilty as well as the innocent would be ensnared, death picking no favorites. This war was monstrous, demons seeming to control the heroes.</p><p>And sometimes, it seemed to make no difference who got caught in the middle. It was a war of monsters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have this exact same fic on FFN, but I posted it here to get other people's points of view. Just know that that one is already 32 chapters in.

Rex tried to ignore the obnoxious music pounding his eardrums s he wove through the crowd. Of all the types of missions, undercover missions were his least favorite. He felt that, at times, they required more work than regular ground battles or space battles. Rex pushed past another group of drunken men and women in the spacious room. Orders were orders, though, so he moved on to find what he was looking for. Rex sighed and looked at the cavernous space around him. The ceiling was high, with fluorescent lights in hues of blue, green, red, and purple lined the ceiling, and there were raised stages spread in between the party-goers on the ground for the "special dancers"—whom Rex chose not to look at. On either side were bars manned by Weequays and Twi'leks. A light green Twi'lek woman with heavy makeup stepped out of the group and grabbed his arm.

"Hey baby," she said, her speech heavily slurred, "wherrre yer goingrr?" She let out a very un-lady like belch. Rex tried shaking off the woman, who had a surprisingly strong grip on his arms, considering how drunk she was.

"To the 'fresher," Rex lied.

"Ha-ha! Yer funny!" She laughed, even though what he said wasn't funny.

"Go away." Rex tried to pull his arm from her iron-like grip.

The woman just laughed even harder.

"Hey, Rex!" He looked over his shoulder to see Ahsoka making her way through the crowd of the nightclub. He sighed in relief.

"Hey," she said, panting slightly, "We're needed in the back." She looked at the woman still hanging on to Rex's arm. Ahsoka glared at the Twi'lek, throwing in a little bit of the Force to take advantage of her inebriated state. " _You_ can go away," Ahsoka said. The Twi'lek woman looked at her for a moment, and her eyes clouded over. Her face went blank as she reluctantly let go of Rex's arm, but she sent a flirtatious smile at Rex anyway as she walked away. Rex shuddered.

"Thanks Commander," he said, turning to Ahsoka.

"No problem, Rexter!" she half yelled over the music. Ahsoka moved her cloak over something attached to her belt, and as Rex looked closer, realized she was hiding her lightsabers.

"You weren't supposed to bring those," Rex whispered to her.

"Well, you weren't supposed to bring your blasters," Ahsoka countered. Rex moved his coat over his twin pistols.

"Point taken."

Before he knew what was happening, Rex felt a hard fist fly into his stomach. He fell over onto the ground, coughing and trying to regain his balance. The same thing happened to Ahsoka, but a Trandoshan was keeping her from hitting the dirty floor. He took her lightsabers and put them on his belt. Ahsoka jabbed her elbow into the Trandoshan's stomach and pushed him away. Just as she was turning around, her assailant hit the back of her head with a blaster. She hit the ground hard and tried standing up again, but the Trandoshan kicked her hard in the stomach.

Rex tried standing up again, but was knocked back to the ground by someone's foot. "You Jedi like to think nobody notices you," The first Trandoshan hissed.

"You two will make a fine price as slaves." The second one said. The first Trandoshan was trying to choke Ahsoka until she fell unconscious, and the second had a firm foot on Rex's back. By now a crowd had cleared a circle around the group, but not one tried to stop them. Rex wrestled his way from under the Trandoshan's foot and quickly stood up. People around them started going crazy, pushing and shoving to either get out the door or get closer to the fight. The Trandoshan punched Ahsoka in the stomach, and she couldn't double over because of the firm grip on her neck.

Some people started shouting things like, "Fight!" and, "My money's on the lizards!" Some even yelled "Save yer girlfriend!" Ahsoka's eyelids were half closed, and by now she was too weak to fight back. Rex growled and swung his left fist at the second Trandoshan, hitting his jaw. He heard a crack, and he wasn't sure if it was his fingers or the Trandoshan's jaw. The Trandoshan hissed and kicked Rex, barely missing his head. Rex slammed his body into the Trandoshan's abdomen and knocked him into the floor. He punched him in the nose and the side of his head. The Trandoshan hissed again flipped Rex over, sucker punching his head. The first Trandoshan pulled him off of Rex. "I think that'll be enough, Ream," he said. "He'll go easily now."

The second Trandoshan kicked Rex and stood up, pulling Rex with him. Rex coughed up some blood and doubled over. The crowd was still standing in the same ring from the beginning of the fight.

Nobody moved.

"I'll be taking these," he said, pulling Rex's DC-17 from his belt.

"All right people, listen up!" Ream yelled. "You didn't see anything here, aight? You're just gonna walk out real slow and quiet like—"

The crowd gave the opposite reaction; a few people started screaming and rushing past others to get to the door. Ream pointed his blaster toward the ceiling and fired three shots. Everybody froze, not even daring to move. "That's better," he said.

"Let them go," a deep voice demanded.

Ream looked towards the general direction of the man's voice. The crowd parted to reveal Anakin Skywalker, a deep scowl on his face. Anakin stepped closer, Ream smiled.

"Hey Saran, look at this!" he called over to his comrade. Saran looked up, his fist was still around Ahsoka's throat, but it wasn't as tight.

"What?" he answered.

"Look what we got here! This guy thinks he can take us both on at once! Ha!" Ream laughed, but there was a slight hint of nervousness in his voice. Saran just rolled his eyes and turned towards Anakin.

"What makes you think you can beat us?" He said in his slithery voice. Anakin narrowed his eyes at the pair of Trandoshans. They looked like they were just teenagers, and Ream was shaking slightly. Anakin rushed at Ream, who was the smaller of the two, and tackled him to the ground. Ream growled and kicked Anakin off of him. He tried head-butting Anakin, but he easily moved out of the way.

"Ok, that's enough!" Saran threw Ahsoka to the ground and stepped on her back. "One more move and the girl gets it!" Saran pointed the blaster at the back of Ahsoka's head. "Here," he said, passing the second blaster to Ream. Ream pointed it at Rex's back. "Now," Saran continued, "you're gonna walk out of here real slow, and we're gonna leave. If any one of you calls the cops on us," he warned, "I swear I will hunt you down and kill you _myself_!"

Ream pointed his blaster at Rex's head. "Try and attack us," he said, "and I'll shoot the man. Saran'll shoot the girl," he said, looking at Anakin. Anakin stared Saran in the eyes, and he knew they were dead serious. Anakin had a sudden feeling of fear inside of him. _There's no way I can let that happen!_ Anakin thought. The images of what happened on Mortis flashed through his mind at lightning speed.

Ahsoka getting attacked by Son, Ahsoka getting possessed by the dark side…

Ahsoka dying…

For a few seconds, everything was quiet, tense. A woman screamed in the background and people started panicking. Everyone was running toward the front and back doors, and the seven-hundred people in the room were pushing and shoving to get out of the way.

"Someone, call the police!" a man shouted.

Everything started moving in slow motion. Ream was the first to put his finger on the trigger. Just as he pulled, Anakin used the Force to point his gun in the other direction. The laser shot the bar, barely missing a patron's head.

Saran pointed his gun at the back of Ahsoka's head just as she managed to wriggle free from his grasp. Anakin used the Force to push his gun in another direction, but he was a second too late.

Two lasers hit Ahsoka, one shot in her shoulder, one in her back.

Anakin Force-pushed Saran back, knocking him into people who were still fleeing the bar.

Meanwhile, Rex was engaged in a fight with Ream. Ream kicked Rex, but he ducked before his head got hit. Rex punched Ream in the stomach, and then kneed his face. Ream hissed and stumbled back. Without warning, he upper-cutted Rex, and slammed his head on the floor. Stars swam in Rex's eyes, and he almost passed out. Ream was pushed off of Rex. When he rolled over, he was kicked in the chest. Rex couldn't breathe, and he knew a few ribs were broken, or at least cracked. Anakin pushed Ream to the ground, and with one punch, knocked Ream unconscious. Rex was on all fours, coughing up blood and trying to breathe.

He looked up to where Ahsoka was trying to stand. "Ma-Master," was all she could manage before she fainted.

"Ahsoka!" Rex and Anakin yelled. Anakin caught Ahsoka before she could hit the ground.

"Ahsoka! Ahsoka!" Anakin shook Ahsoka's shoulders. His breathing quickened and he feared the worst until Rex pointed out that she was still breathing.

"She's not dead, sir," Rex stated. Anakin sighed in relief.

"Rex, call a transport here to the _Radiant_. We're taking Ahsoka back to the ship."

* * *

Anakin stood in the south hangar on board the Republic star destroyer _Radiant_ , watching ships enter and exit the hangar. Rex came up next to him and stood at attention.

"How's Ahsoka?" Anakin asked. The worry in his voice was evident.

"She's just left the infirmary, sir. She should be here soon." _I'm fine too_ , Rex added in his head. Anakin looked at Rex, as if he had just heard what Rex thought. _Kriffing Jedi senses!_ He thought in despair.

"So, how did the recon mission go?" Anakin asked instead.

"It went well, sir. The Separatist spy was apprehended within the first two days of our stake out." Rex stood at attention.

"Two days?" Anakin asked, unbelieving. "Rex, this mission should have taken a few weeks, at the least. You're telling me that the day after you touch down on a planet, you find one of the Republic's most wanted criminals and you stay at the planet for the next couple of weeks just for the fun of it?"

Rex stayed silent because that was exactly what had happened, although it was Ahsoka's idea that they stay and learn the local culture.

Just when Anakin was about to say something, Obi-wan came up to him and Rex. The Jedi Master greeted them and turned to Anakin.

"Well, hello Anakin. There is something I've been meaning to tell you." Anakin looked at Obi-wan.

"Oh really?" he said, not believing it was anything important.

"There is one woman I think you remember from a battle on Verocia," Obi-wan stated, resting a hand on his chin.

Anakin expression turned dark. "There was only one battle on Verocia; one that I choose not to remember."

"Oh, yes. Well, we have our next mission on the planet of Verocia," Obi-wan said.

"That's not possible," Anakin said, alarmed.

"Unfortunately, it is true. They've been experiencing some...problems...since we were last there. Now,there was one Jedi whose home planet was Verocia; I just can't remember her name," Obi-wan confirmed.

"If you're talking about the days of the Lizard War, then there was one woman whom I choose not to remember," Anakin replied curtly.

"The Lizard War?" Ahsoka asked, walking up to the group in the hangar bay. "What's that?"

Nobody answered her question. An uneasy silence came over them, and Ahsoka felt a little guilty for asking.

"It's nothing, Snips..." Anakin answered.

"Well, whatever her name was, she's here, and I expect you to be courteous this time, Anakin," Obi-wan said, changing the subject.

"Oh, do you mean General Jorani? If you do, then she's actually coming from a meeting with the council on the bridge," Ahsoka stated.

Anakin stiffened and turned toward Ahsoka. "Wait," he said, "she's on this ship, _right_ _now_?"

"Uh…yeah. She docked while we were on the planet below, in the bar," Ahsoka said uncertainly. "Master, what's wrong?" she asked him.

Anakin ignored Ahsoka and spun on Obi-wan."You let her on the ship? There is absolutely no way we will be able to complete this mission if she's here! I swear-" Anakin didn't notice that Rex was pointing behind him the entire time until it was too late.

"Well, Ani it's nice to see you too," A cold voice said behind him. Anakin turned slowly and winced…


	2. Introductions 2

The Verocian woman standing in front of him had pale blue skin with darker blue freckles. Her jet black hair was pulled into a braid reaching the middle of her back, and she had deep purple eyes with dark blue spots in them that were now glaring at Anakin.

"Oh," Anakin deadpanned, "it's you. What a surprise."

"Here, I was going to try and put our past behind us. But apparently it seems you still act like the same jerk you were back on Verocia during the Lizard War!" Kiki snapped.

"Well, Kiki you don't have to be here right now," Anakin shot back.

Ahsoka gave Rex a questioning look. "So this is what usually happens when they're together?"

Rex nodded silently, his helmet barely moving. "Every single time." The slightest hint of annoyance was heard in his voice.

"Oh, hey Blondie," Kiki said to Rex, smirking. She'd obviously sensed what he was thinking. Rex groaned internally and Ahsoka raised an eye marking. It was one of those rare passing moments where Kiki would take out her aggressions on Rex.

"Well, what a nice reunion," Obi-wan said. "Kiki, why don't you introduce us to your Padawan?" Kiki stopped glaring at Anakin and turned to the girl next to her, whom everyone just noticed.

"This is my Padawan Danda Merin," Kiki said, placing a light hand on her shoulder.

The human girl stepped forward and bowed to Anakin and Obi-wan. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Masters," Danda said politely, smiling.

Anakin looked at Kiki. "Why can't you be as polite as your Padawan?" he asked.

She ignored his last remark and motioned toward Ahsoka. "What about her? I'm assuming she's Obi-wan's Padawan."

"Actually, she's my Padawan. I'd like you to meet Ahsoka Tano," Anakin put a proud hand on Ahsoka's shoulder. Kiki was amazed, to say the least.

"She's actually survived under your teaching?" Kiki asked. Anakin just groaned and was about to say something snarky but Kiki interrupted him. "Well congratulations Ahsoka, you stayed alive through the first three days of Anakin's schooling and unorthodox ways."

"Oh, _I_ have unorthodox ways?" Anakin retorted. Ahsoka and Danda both cringed, embarrassed for themselves and each other by their Masters' behavior.

"Now is not the time for this," Obi-wan said. "I have important business to attend to with the Council; I trust you will be able to situate yourselves." He gave Anakin and Kiki a look before heading toward the bridge.

Anakin was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Ahsoka and I are going to go locate our quarters and unpack." He started leading her away, but Kiki stepped in front of them.

"Nope, we already have where everybody is staying," she said.

"Who says you choose where we stay?"

Kiki glared at him. "I do," she . "My ship: my rules."

Anakin stared. "Since when was this ship yours?" Last he remembered, Kiki's own Venator was in the shipyard getting repairs after a particularly vicious battle.

"Ever since Master Raris got injured in a battle and went into bacta. She let me have this temporarily while mine was getting repairs done. " Kiki pointed in the direction of the barracks. "I assume you know were guest quarters are, unless you need me to hold your hand while you try to find your way." Anakin opened his mouth to retort, but Kiki cut him off again. "The Padawans will be bunking together because of…issues."

"It's okay with me, Master," Danda said, shrugging slightly.

"Great!" Kiki said. "Bliz, you can give Rex a 'tour' of the ship'."

Bliz was Kiki's volatile second in command and she trusted him with almost anything. He and Rex had a camaraderie that changed depending on Bliz's mood for the day. "Rex! It's been a while," Bliz said in greeting, patting the Captain's shoulder.

"It has, Bliz," Rex said. He was glad today was one of Bliz's good days, or else he would have been greeted with a grunt and a cold shoulder. Maybe a glare, too.

Bliz turned a corner and Rex followed. There was really no need to, all the ship's layouts were the same. As they walked down the hallway, the two command clones heard a crash and a shout from one of the rooms ahead.

Bliz grumbled something under his breath, annoyance radiating clear on his face.

"What's going on in there?" Rex asked. He already had a clue.

"That's what I'm afraid to find out." They stopped in front of a door where Rex guessed the ruckus had come from.

"Before you go in, I just want you to know that it's most likely Crusade Squad that's in there," Bliz sighed. Bliz pressed a button on the side of the double doors to reveal complete mayhem. One of the bunk beds in the corner had been knocked over and a clone was standing behind it, trying to stay out of reach of another one. Rex realized that they were fighting over a yellow book the first one had. Two other clones were trying to break up the fight. The last one had his back to them, and even though he was fiddling with his gun at a table, he was the first to notice the commander and captain. He stood up at attention to acknowledge the higher ranking officers.

"Sir!" he said. The other clones noticed Rex and Bliz and echoed what the first had said.

"At ease, soldiers," Bliz said. Everyone relaxed but didn't move from their positions.

"What happened in here?" Rex demanded. The first clone to speak up had a shark fin haircut with bright red at the tip and red horizontal stripes at the back of his head. "Edger was reading—" Before he could finish his sentence, a pillow hit him square in the face.

Edger had a completely shaved head, a scar along his jaw line, and a scowl on his face. "Whatever Ratchet tells you is a lie, sir," Edger said.

"H-He was reading a dirty book!" Ratchet rushed to finish his sentence. "I th-think he stole it."

"No I wasn't!" Edger yelled.

"Lie," the clone at the table said. He turned back around to focus on the datapad he held in his hand, having finished cleaning his blaster.

"Shut up Cord!" Edger snapped, true to nature. He wasn't soft-spoken.

"A-Actually, I have the book right here, sir," Ratchet said.

"Give it back!" Edger stepped around the bed and lunged for Ratchet. Right before he got tackled, Ratchet threw the book to Cord—the cold team medic—who threw it to another clone named Jax—who embarrassed easily—who tossed it to Bliz.

"Well let's see what's so bad about this book of yours, Edger."

"Who said it was my book?"

Bliz ignored him and flipped to the dog-eared page as Rex read over his shoulder. After reading half a paragraph, Bliz shut the book with slightly disturbed look on his face. Rex had the same expression and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I never thought you would be a pervert, Edger," Bliz finally said. "Where did you even _get_ this?"

"I swear I'm not a perv! Jax is the pervert!" Edger practically exploded. "I just found it lying around in here!"

"I am not a pervert!" Jax yelled back, his face exploding into multiple shades of crimson.

"Maybe it was left over from the last Jedi's squad," Cord suggested. He couldn't even care less about the current situation.

Rex sighed and Bliz shrugged his shoulders. They were both tired and didn't want to delve any further into the problem and waste precious energy. Rex moved towards the turned over bunk bed.

"In the meantime, I'll be keeping this," Bliz said, putting the book under one arm. He had a plan to burn it and tell the owner it was lost.

"Help me get this up," Rex picked up one end of the bunk bed and Ratchet, Jax and Bliz helped him correct it.

"Well, I'll be in the mess; that's where I saw the Commanders headed," Bliz stated after a moment. "You wanna come with?"

Rex nodded and followed Bliz.

"But," Bliz stalled at the door, whipping a stern gaze at Crusade Squad. "I don't want _any_ trouble from _any_ of you. Got it?"

A few mumbled "yessirs" were heard. Bliz nodded and strode down the hall.

When they entered the mess hall, they saw that Anakin, Ahsoka, Kiki and Danda were already there. So far, it didn't look like the two Jedi had gotten into a fight yet, although the clones knew better than to hope that one wouldn't start. They were glaring at each other across the table.

"Hey, Rex!" Ahsoka called. "Why don't you come and join us?"

"You too, Bliz," Danda said. "Have a seat." Rex moved in next to Ahsoka as Bliz moved in next to Danda.

"So, what are we eating?" Bliz asked, already knowing.

"Compacted foodboard that's supposed to be healthy," Danda grumbled. "Something's broken back there again."

"General, are you ok?" Bliz looked in concern to Kiki. She had her head in her hands, an exhausted expression lining her eyes. It took her a moment to notice and even her answer was labored.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine," she answered unconvincingly.

"Master, you don't look so good. Are you sure your fine?" Danda took Kiki's arm.

"I feel a little sick, that's all," Kiki admitted. She waved her hand flippantly, shaking her head. "It's nothing to worry yourselves about."

"General, I think it would be best if you visited the medbay," Bliz suggested. Kiki sighed and got up while gripping her stomach.

The problem was, this had been happening a lot in the past few weeks; Kiki would get sick and then pass it off as some menial problem or other.

"Okay fine, if you say so—but my food had better still be here."

"Sir, let me take you," Rex said as he stood up to walk with Kiki to the door. Bliz would have offered had Rex not already been helping Kiki up.

" _General Skywalker, you're needed in the bridge._ " A clone's voice came over Anakin's wrist comm.

Anakin held his commlink up to his mouth, turning slightly away from the table. "Can it wait?" he asked.

" _No sir. You're presence was personally requested by the Jedi Council. It's about your next mission._ "

Anakin huffed. He didn't notice his finger was still on the button. "Okay, tell them I'll be there soon."

" _Yes sir!_ "

Anakin turned toward those who were still at the table. "Well, I'll definitely be back, I haven't eaten lunch yet. Let's hope I'm not in trouble." Anakin exited the mess hall.

The only ones left at the table were Ahsoka, Danda, and Bliz. After a moment of looking at each other, Danda voiced her worries. "What if she's sick? How are we going to complete the mission on Verocia? She's the only Jedi available that can speak the language. Not even protocol droids' translations are that accurate."

Ahsoka patted Danda's shoulder, trying to comfort her new friend. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. Besides we have my master."

Danda looked at Ahsoka. "My master doesn't think Master Skywalker is reliable," she said.

"Well, Master Skywalker thinks your master isn't very responsible," Ahsoka challenged. After a moment, both the Padawans sighed.

"She could have food poisoning," Bliz said, his mouth slightly full. They looked at their trays then pushed them away.

"I guess I might as well leave too," Bliz got up from his seat and dumped his food in the bin.

"Wait, where are you going?" Danda asked, a little upset that everyone was leaving.

"I've got to make sure we're fully kitted for our mission—heard this one was important." Bliz, at that point in time, had no clue where they were going. It was strange, because normally they would have known what planet—or at least what system—they were going to. _As long as it isn't covered in snow, I'm happy_.

Ahsoka stared at the white ceiling. "This stinks," she said. Danda nodded her agreement, her short brown hair swaying.

"There's nothing to do!" Ahsoka complained.

"I think I'll go visit the clones," Danda said, "You know, help keep the Crusade Squad in line." Danda smirked. She was starting to show more of her true personality.

The Crusade Squad wasn't necessarily bad. In fact, they had an immaculate record for mission completions and efficiency. It was how they acted in the barracks and when they got into disagreements that made them so notorious. There squad couldn't have been made up of clones with more different personalities. It was also some of their personal goals that made them so different.

The two girls stood up and left the mess hall.

Anakin stood before part of the Jedi Council. "You wanted to see me, Masters?"


	3. Missionn Received

"Yes, Anakin," Mace Windu said. "I believe you have already heard of your mission to Verocia?"

"Master," Anakin interjected. "What problem could have possibly risen since we were last there?" he asked. "We made sure that the Separatists left the planet and its people alone, and now they're safe."

Mace Windu's silence unnerved Anakin. "Not relatively safe," he answered finally.

"What's the supposed to mean?" Anakin asked, wearing a carefully guarded expression.

"The Separatists have been found hanging around a moon system of Verocia."

"And you can't send anyone else to help?" Anakin wished it didn't happen, but he felt his face twist with displeasure.

"Anakin, there's more to the story," Master Ti said. Anakin frowned.

"More?"

"Yes," Mace Windu said. "There have been…sightings."

Anakin felt his blood run cold. "Sightings," he muttered under his breath prompting Master Windu.

"The Queen believes that the threat from a few years ago has not been completely eradicated," Master Ti said.

"That's impossible!" Anakin said, fully realizing what they were implying. "We blew up the factory, and they are supposed to be extinct! There's absolutely no way those monsters could have possibly survived that blast!"

"Anakin," Obi-wan said. "We never said that they had come back, but we need you and Kiki to go and investigate the—"

"There's no one else you can send for this mission? I'm sorry, Master, but I can't go back," Anakin said, looking all of them in the eye.

"Anakin," Master Yoda said. "Go back, you must. Let these old memories haunt you, you must not," he said, his wise words ringing somewhat true to Anakin. "Trust anyone else, the queen does not," he said. Anakin sighed.

Anakin didn't answer, already knowing he didn't have a say in the matter. He was going on the mission.

"You will be leaving soon," Obi-wan said. "Anakin, I understand what you are going through right now," he said, trying to console Anakin. His floating blue image clicked off.

"May the Force be with you, young Skywalker," Yoda said, his image fading as well.

"There's no way you could understand what I'm going through," Anakin said to the empty space where the council once stood. He could feel apprehension begin to build in his stomach, like a tight, twisted knot that refused to loosen.

**##**

The medical droid tilted its head at Rex, as if it was trying to go for a confused look. "Did you not know of this?" the droid asked in its monotonous voice.

Rex had gone to check on Kiki after she left the mess hall. He expected her to be fine after spending some time in the med bay, but what was ailing her was something he never would have been able to imagine.

" _No_. There has to be some mistake," he ground out, biting back the other choice words he had for the med droid. Rex's head was spinning. _What am I going to do?_ he thought. _I'm supposed to report these kinds of things, but she might court-martial me if I get into her privacy._

What he knew was potentially compromising to their mission. He wasn't _supposed_ to know. He didn't want to know, wished that someone other than him had gone to check General Jorani's status.

Rex went towards the computer on the left side of the room, scanning through the names of the recent patients. "You're sure they came out positive?" With relative ease, Rex accessed Kiki's recent medical files. If knowing about her _condition_ didn't get him court martialed, then going through a commanding officer's personal medical files surely would.

"You can check the tests yourself. All of them came out positive." The 2-1B's dull and supposedly placating tone was fraying Rex's nerves.

Rex gripped the control panel to the computer, reading over every test that Kiki had gone through. The droid was right. A sort of cold tightness gripped Rex's stomach, clenching his gut and slowly making its way to his chest.

This was not the kind of information a Captain could keep about a Jedi General. He made up his mind. "You stay here and don't repeat a _word_. I'm going to tell—" Rex was cut off when the door to one of the private rooms in the infirmary opened. Kiki stepped out, appearing to be less sick. She looked around the room, from the medical droid, to the computer with her medical record on the screen, to Rex with the carefully guarded look on his face.

"What happened?" she asked. Before Rex could cover up his discovery, the medical droid cut in.

"Captain Rex did not know of your condition. Was I not supposed to tell him?" the droid almost seemed apologetic. Almost.

Kiki eyes first widened in shock, and then narrowed in anger. She Force- pushed the medical droid against the wall and stormed up to it. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone!" she seethed. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't scrap you and turn you into spare parts right now!" Kiki had a cold look in her eyes that told the medical droid she was dead serious.

"T-the other medical droid is u-under repairs. You wouldn't risk destroying me when we're so close to S-Separatist space, would you?" it asked, fear being the only emotion to break its monotone. The droid was becoming desperate and started spewing off other random reasons why it shouldn't be sold for spare parts.

"I only asked for one reason, and that wasn't even good enough," Kiki said darkly.

"Please no—" Kiki dragged it over to the computer and plugged it in. "W-what are you doing?" The medical droid asked frantically.

"Formatting your system," she answered. If she didn't do it right, then she could delete more than just the information she needed to. At that particular moment, she didn't care.

Rex took this as his moment to leave. He started inching his way to the door, his boots barely making a noise against the durasteel. Only a few meters and he would be out of the infirmary.

Kiki was typing at lightning speed, selecting the files she wanted erased. Rex was a meter from the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kiki sent a chilled glare at Rex. She could sense him trying to escape.

Rex froze and slowly turned around. Kiki put her hand up, keeping the door shut.

"I was just leaving; it looked like you were busy." Rex knew that that was a feeble excuse for trying to escape.

"You were going to tell someone, weren't you?" Kiki asked, seeing through Rex's lie. Rex stayed silent.

"Rex you can't tell anyone," her voice suddenly caught the barest undertone of fear.

Rex swallowed and averted his gaze, staring at the wall behind her. "I'm sorry, sir, but I have to. I can't just let something like this—"

"Rex, you can't tell anyone!" Kiki stepped forward dropping her hand. "You don't understand. You can't tell _anyone_. It's none of their business to begin with." Kiki glanced around nervously, as if ears could be listening to their conversation at that very moment.

Rex had a decision to make; either he hides the secret and risk serious trouble with Command—should they ever find out—or get into trouble with Kiki by telling the Council. Either way, there was a risk of court martial for carrying this kind of information and telling—or not telling—someone. Rex swallowed and suppressed. He had a feeling he was going to regret this decision, but decided that he would cross that bridge when he got there. For one horrifying second, Rex thought he heard the door opening, or the crackle of the intercom turning on.

After mulling over his decision for a last time, Rex spoke: "I won't tell."

Kiki sagged with relief. "Thank you Rex!" The computer beeped and Kiki went over to unplug the medical droid.

 _This doesn't seem very responsible for a Jedi,_ Rex whirled on him, having sensed his thoughts and not appreciating them.

"You think I'm being irresponsible…" Kiki's deep purple eyes darkened a shade in anger. "What do you mean it's not very responsible?" Kiki didn't give Rex any time to answer. "You don't even know what I'm risking right now, letting you get away with knowing this kind of thing. You don't even know my side of the story and what I am going through right now. You can't possibly say that I'm being irresponsible." Kiki walked past Rex out the door of the infirmary.

**##**

"Rex, we need to speak, it's about our next mission." The message came over Rex's wrist comm link.

Rex wondered what the problem was as he followed went down the hall that led to the designated private briefing room.

"Rex." Anakin half smiled in greeting. "I trust you've heard about our next mission on Verocia," he said.

Rex nodded his head and forced the memories down. He preferred not to live through them again. "Yes sir."

"Our sources have told us that there are Separatists hanging around the planet, and the queen personally requested the Republic's help." Rex saw something in Anakin's eyes just then, but it was too quick for him to catch it. He felt his chest tighten up; the last planet he wanted to re-visit was Verocia. Too many unspeakable things had happened and Rex knew it was going to stir up unpleasant memories.

But Rex had to wonder, why was she asking now? The first time they'd had cleared the Separatists off of the planet and that part of the system, and she had refused to join the Republic.

"Do you want me to tell the men, sir?" Rex asked a little uncertainly. He knew this kind of news was not something Crusade Squad wanted to hear. _He_ didn't even want to hear it. Anakin nodded and turned around, dismissing Rex. After saluting, he spun around and walked out the door, contemplating how he would tell Crusade Squad. He didn't know where Bliz was, but this should have been his job.

"What happened, sir?" Jax asked.

"It's about the next mission," Rex began. "I'm sure Bliz has already told you this but…Separatists have been found around the planet Verocia and we have to go there for our next mission." Silence hung in the air, and was Rex starting to regret telling them the news so bluntly.

He sighed and relaxed his shoulders. "It's just a scout mission. Go there, protect the people, and maybe blast a few droids. Nothing much, we should be done within a few days, a week at the most," Rex tried to reassure his men. He could already see Cord stiffen and turn around in his seat, lips in a hard line and paling slightly.

"It'll be alright men, just a little insignificant mission. Over and done with before you even know it," Rex tried again.

"It will be alright," Rex voiced again. He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself more than the others.

"There is no way I'm going back," Cord said. He remained turned around in his chair, but Rex could see how the normally emotionless clone's fists were clenched and how he shook slightly. "I am not going back," he repeated.

Rex sighed and turned towards the door as Commander Cody walked in. "What happened?" he asked tentatively. The silence only got thicker and Cody immediately regretted asking the question at all.

"We're going on another mission for Verocia," Rex spoke up when no one else would. Cody made a face that said he understood, but he never really would. He was in the space battle of The Lizard War, not the ground battle.

The intercom system crackled, and a clone's voice came over the speaker. _'Crusade Squad, report to deck D4 immediately. Room A3.'_ The system clicked off and everyone looked around nervously. Room A3; General Kiki's special room for confidential meetings and briefings.

"This can't be good," Bliz said. He got up and headed out the door, followed by Rex, and the rest of Crusade Squad.


	4. Arrival

In the briefing room, Kiki stood in front of the single, wide window, watching the blue lines of hyperspace streak by her view. "Are all of you here?" she said without turning around.

"Yes sir," Bliz voiced. The rest of the Squad stood at attention in the back of the room, facing the holo-projector in the center.

"Have a seat." Kiki turned around and motioned to the chairs surrounding the projector. Everyone found a seat and sat down, resting their helmets on the floor by their feet. Kiki sighed and fully turned around. She could feel the apprehension rolling off of her men in waves, even from Anakin and Rex.

"I know," she began carefully, "that you're not looking forward to this mission to my home planet, but we were requested by the queen herself, and the Jedi council agreed and said I would go." _Without even consulting me first_ , Kiki thought irately. "This mission is also partly personal for me." Kiki sighed and rubbed her forehead. "This shouldn't take as long as it did last time, and we're most likely just going to be at the second palace, far away from the first battle site at the capital." _Let's hope we don't have to go through the same horrors we did last time, either_ , she thought. Because of Kiki's enhanced mind abilities through the Force-basically telepathy- she could practically hear the thoughts of everyone in the room. Dark memories chasing each other in everyone's minds, she could hear screaming and almost feel the pain that they had all endured. Kiki clutched her head, trying to clear it of the pain that was staring to flood her senses.

"Sorry, sir," Jax said immediately. He knew exactly what was happening in Kiki's mind. "Just so many things…" he let his voice trail off and sent Kiki an apologetic look.

Kiki only shook her head. "It's okay. We've all had bad experiences there." _Well, at least I have people I can look forward to meeting,_ Kiki thought with some happiness.

"Sir, where will we be landing? I understand that we have to bring multiple gunships down planet side, but the main castle didn't have any landing pads, will the secondary?" Bliz asked after raising his hand.

"Yes, the secondary palace has a landing pad, but it can only fit two gunships side-by-side. You don't need to worry about where we are going to fit one hundred seventy-five clone troopers, because the east wing has been given to us for our use." Kiki gave a faint smile at the astonished looks on her men's faces.

"An entire wing, sir? What if that's too much space?" Edger couldn't help but voice his worry.

Kiki looked over to him. "Don't worry, Edger. That's just enough space. There is also a kitchen for your use. As long as you don't burn anything, we'll all be fine." Kiki tried to reassure her men of more than just burned food. The joke did nothing to melt the more than grim look on Cord's face, though. Kiki sighed and turned off the holo-projector. "Bliz, get the transports ready, we'll be leaving at 0900." Kiki turned back to the window, dismissing her men.

"Oh yes," Kiki said turning back around to face them. "You'll be getting a new member of Crusade Squad when we touch down on Verocia."

"A new member, sir?" Bliz asked. Kiki nodded.

"Is it a good idea to be bringing a new guy into the group…now?" Jax asked. _Right when we're going to Verocia?_

"I asked him, and he said yes," Kiki answered. Of course, she asked him. Edger rubbed his chin in thought. Kiki had asked all of them whether or not they would like to join Crusade Squad. Edger heard Cord sigh and turned back towards the door.

"Oh yeah, and guys?" Kiki's voice stopped them once again. "Be nice to him."

Ratchet thought it would be a little hard to be kind to anyone if nightmares would be keeping him up most of the night.

* * *

Edger gripped the handle on the LAAT/i tightly in one fist, his DC-15 in the other with an even stronger grip. He didn't want to come back. He didn't imagine the Generals or even the Captain and Commander wanting to come back to this planet. But, orders were orders, so he had no choice but to go in head first and hope for the best. Edger felt the slow decent of the gunships as it drew near the secondary palace. He could see bright sunlight filtering through the spaces in the doors, letting him catch glimpses of his surroundings. The LAAT/i touched down on the landing pad, and Edger saw Cord grip the handle even harder, looking as if he weren't about to let go. He could tell Jax was paling under his helmet. Edger continued to look around the gunship. There were many shinnies on the ship, so any one of them could be the new recruit Kiki had told them about.

The gunship finally landed and the doors opened. By now, Cord really looked as he weren't about to let go of the handle. But, in the end he did, and Edger followed as Cord stiffly walked out of the hold.

" _Kriff_ ," Edger swore. "It even smells the same," Edger noted disdainfully. Jax only shrugged his shoulders and walked into line, the bright sun making his armor glare.

Kiki lead down the middle with Bliz, Danda, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex. They led the group up a large set of stairs to an even larger door. Jax glanced around when he stepped inside. The hallway was wide, with high ceilings and delicate decorations on the walls.

"Look sharp men," Kiki whispered. Jax stood up straighter when he saw a woman coming down the way towards them.

She was wearing a yellow gown that reached the ground, with a slit going up one leg. She had a complicated head dress with jet black hair and pale blue skin resembling Kiki's. _Actually, she looks a lot like General Jorani_ , Jax noted with slight amazement. He assumed she was Queen Makoria of Verocia. The Queen smiled at Kiki in a way that Jax found strange. It was more familiar than he thought it would be.

"I'm so glad you're here. We have been experiencing troubles with the Separatists lately. Count Dooku has been asking me to join the Separatist alliance, even though we are a neutral planet."

Kiki nodded her head, an unreadable expression riddling her features. "Well, your highness, that's why we're here. We'll unpack and be ready for you to call us." The queen smiled again.

Jax picked up two movements from the scanners in his helmet, one from behind the queen, the other from out the window. Jax looked harder through the window to his right. He saw another flash of movement, and he knew it wasn't just a bird or some small animal. When he looked upon closer inspection, he saw that the skin was green, almost scaly. _No_ , he thought with sudden fear. _That's impossible! They can't be-_ Jax's thoughts were interrupted when the queen started speaking again.

"Let me show you where you and your men shall keep your belongings." She turned around to start walking down the hall, but a little head popped out from behind her dress. "Ri! I told you to stay inside!"

Ahsoka cocked her head at what the child said next. "But I want to see aunty," she said, clinging to the woman's dress. She couldn't have been more than two years old. Ri looked around at the adults before her before spotting Kiki,

"Aunty!" Ri cried, running up to hug Kiki's leg.

"Aunty?" Anakin asked, raising an eyebrow at Kiki.

"I am so sorry! I don't know why she doesn't listen to me anymore," Queen Makoria immediately started apologizing for the toddler's behavior.

Ri looked up at the other adults. "Hi," she said shyly, peeking out from behind Kiki's leg.

Anakin smiled at Ri. "Hey there," he said to her. Ri gasped and hid behind Kiki's leg, peeking out to look at Anakin. Anakin made a face and Ahsoka giggled.

"Well, since it looks like Ri won't be leaving any time soon," Queen Makoria waved her hand down the hallway. "I might as well give you a tour of the palace. I would have started at the main entrance, but we are doing some…renovations," she sighed. She walked down the hallway, the Jedi, clones, and little Ri behind her.

Jax caught another sight of movement from his scanners through the large window. Whatever it was was starting to unnerve him to a point where Kiki could feel it.

"Jax, are you okay?" She stalled her speed to line up with him. Jax stiffened a little at her closeness, but answered anyway.

"I'm fine, sir," Jax lied. He wasn't fine. He was sure he was seeing things. There was no way they could be back, they'd made sure of that the last time they came to this nightmare-of-a-planet. Jax instantly regretted not speaking up about having to return. Now he was sure there would not be peace for any of them…


	5. Chapter 5

Queen Makoria walked down another hallway. "We are approaching the east wing now. I have fitted the bedrooms with hopefully enough of what your men need. If you are in need of anything else, just tell me," she said, hands folded in front of her. Queen Makoria turned around to face the Jedi and clones. "Or you could just tell the children. I'm sure they will find what you need." Queen Makoria smiled.

 _Children? This will only make our mission more complicated_ , Bliz thought. Queen Makoria was already excusing herself, saying that she had a call waiting for her. Bliz didn't hear exactly what it was that she said.

Bliz stood outside the door to the room he, Crusade Squad, and Rex would be sharing. _Along with the new guy_ , Bliz thought dismally. The last thing they needed at this moment was another addition to their squad. Bliz heard Marik sigh beside him.

"We might as well go in. Standing out here won't accomplish anything." Marik's hand went towards the panel to the right of the door.

"Ah. Commander, there you are!" Bliz looked up along with Crusade squad to see Kiki walking towards them with an unfamiliar clone by her side.

 _The new kid_ , Bliz thought. He looked at the armor to see if he recognized the markings. The new trooper had painted his boots entirely black except for the soles, with sharp points reaching up over his thighs, and he even had the Crusade Squad crest already stenciled onto his right breast plate. Bliz couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

"Crusade Squad –and Rex," Kiki began, "I would like you to meet CT-010/346, or as you'll be calling him, Ridge."

Ridge took off his helmet, and Bliz looked at him, surprised. Ridge's haircut was definitely something he hadn't seen before –at least on a clone; Ridge had a Mohawk with bright red streaks in it, the tip reaching the middle of the bridge of his nose. It didn't stand up, or else it wouldn't have fit in his helmet, but it was thicker at the base, giving it some size. Another thing that Ridge had that Bliz had never seen on a clone was piercings; two small hoops and a stud. He also had a stud under his lip, all of which were black.

Bliz looked on with disapproval. Although he didn't really mind the haircut, the piercings were impractical and not fit for battle. He didn't hear most of what Kiki said.

"And he has a nice haircut," she said, nudging his arm playfully. She was trying to make him more comfortable in the less than warm welcome he received from Crusade Squad. Ridge gave a soft smile.

"I aim to please, sir," Ridge said. He looked to the rest of Crusade Squad; a hopeful look in his eyes even though it didn't show on the rest of his face.

Bliz frowned again. Ridge's voice seemed high, not the high that shinnies fresh off of Kamino had, but just a little higher. There wasn't the usual undertone of gruffness that came with a shinnies' voice. Bliz was sure he also heard ridge's voice crack –just slightly- but it was there. He also seemed a little on the short side. Where Kiki would come up to a clone's temple, ridge was just a fraction taller than her. Bliz narrowed his eyes. He was glad Kiki couldn't see how much he was glaring under his bucket. _Just how old is this kid?_ Bliz thought.

Bliz could see the look Kiki was giving him. _Be_ nice _to him_ it said. Marik opened the door to their barracks, stepping in. The rest of the men followed, and Kiki continued on down the hall, little Ri still trailing her. Marik looked around the room, choosing which bunk he wanted to sleep on.

Four bunks were on either side of the room, and the original Crusade Squad immediately started choosing which bunks they would be sleeping on. There were extras, too many, actually. Ridge watched as the others started setting up. He dragged his duffel over to the bed nearest the door, not out of disrespect, but because he didn't know them. He'd seen them from a distance in the mess hall and on missions, but that was it. They always seemed so friendly with each other, and Ridge couldn't help but wonder how long it would take for him to become best mates with _them_. He had never spoken to any of them before, except for maybe Cord.

Ridge sighed. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't help it if he was quiet around new people –besides, he didn't have anything _to_ say. He sat on the bed, examining his freshly painted helmet in silence.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Ridge's head snapped up to the speaker. Edger smiled at him, and Ridge relaxed a little.

"Not around new people, usually," he answered, his eyes already straying back to his helmet. He was just waiting for some kind of comment or remark about his height, or his voice, or just about him in general. He was used to that.

"Maybe he's the shy type," Marik said from the bunk above Ratchet.

" _Jax_ is the shy type," Edger said, smirking.

Jax glowered. "I am not _shy_."

"Sure you are!" Edger countered brightly, "Especially around the Gen—oomph!" His face was immediately smothered with a pillow by Jax.

"Ignore him," Jax said calmly, although his face was the lightest shade of pink.

Ridge smiled. So far, he was looking forward to spending more time with Crusade Squad…

* * *

Bliz turned in his bed. Then he turned over again. He could hear voices, clear and loud, even though they were supposed to be gone, extinct, _destroyed_ …

" _We're coming to get you,"_ _they hissed. He could almost see them, their ugly, scaly skin and piercing eyes. He saw a woman, screaming for help, completely covered in blood. He tried running to her, but found he couldn't move, there was a hand tight around his neck, and he was up to his waist in a thick, red liquid._

_Blood…_

" _We're coming to get you. Watch your back," it hissed again. Bliz could see a hand forming, leading to an arm, and then a torso. Bliz closed his eyes, he didn't want to see what it would lead up to, He already knew. He couldn't breathe; he could feel the fear begin to surge in him as he watched the woman die, slowly sinking into the ocean of blood._

" _You're next," the voice hissed, squeezing even tighter around his throat. Bliz wanted to scream, but he couldn't, he couldn't find his voice. He felt his life slowly fading away from him, his vision getting darker and darker…_

Bliz shot up straight in bed, shaking and drenched in a cold sweat. He struggled to control his breathing as he took in the surroundings of the barracks. _First night here and I'm already having nightmares_ , Bliz thought humorlessly.

Bright moonlight came in through the large window at the end of the room he was on. Everyone else was having their own nightmares, he could tell, they were thrashing and turning in their beds. Bliz finally got a hold of his breathing, climbing out of bed and walking to the door. He decided a short walk would help clear his head.

"You alright, Commander?" Bliz froze at the voice. He saw Ridge in his bed; he was looking at him with a slightly concerned and mostly tired look on his face. He must have heard him during his nightmares.

"I'm alright. Doesn't matter," Bliz whispered. Ridge sat up a little more and turned so he could face Bliz better, rubbing an eye groggily.

"Youshur? Ridge was so sleepy his words were slurring together. He continued rubbing his eye as he sat up and turned around to face Bliz, kneeling on his bed, and one hand down to help him keep his balance.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. Go back to sleep kid," Bliz said. Ridge stiffened, just slightly, at the word "kid". It was barely even enough to notice, but for a person who spent their entire life noticing tiny differences to tell his brothers apart in a sea of identical faces, the move wasn't hard to miss. Bliz watched as Ridge stiffly crawled back under the thick blankets the queen had to offer.

"M'kay," he said.

Bliz sighed and walked through the door. He didn't know why Ridge had reacted the way he did when he called him "kid". Bliz had called a lot of shinnies before "kid", and they always took it in stride, they knew that they would outgrow it later. Bliz pondered this as he walked quietly.

Moonlight flooded the hallways from the enormous windows, spotting them in patterns of light and shadows. Bliz wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to clear his head of the recent nightmare. He stopped at one of the windows, looking out on the palace gardens. Upon closer examination, he could see the clones that were on duty at the moment, patrolling the pathways of the extensive garden, as alert and ready as if they were in a battle and not on watch.

Something moved in one of the bushes, immediately drawing Bliz's attention. Just as he looked, he saw a flash of an object like a long tail, whipping around before disappearing in the plants. Another movement caught his eye, and Bliz looked down to the flower bed right below the window. There was a glint of yellow, not flashing, but _glowing_.

It was an eye.

Bliz felt his back stiffen and sudden terror run through him. He stared at the eye, and it blinked and stared right back before disappearing from his sight. Bliz's blood ran cold, and he quickly swiveled away from the window, just in time to see a little child standing a few feet away from him. Bliz froze.

She looked to be about seven years old, with pale blue skin matching Kiki's, and pale blonde hair almost mistakable for whit unless you looked closely. Her bright green eyes seemed to glow in the dark, even as she rubbed one sleepily.

Bliz opened his mouth to say something, but cut himself off at the look on the little girl's face. It didn't ask _who are you?_ but _are you okay?_ This child didn't even know who he was but she was concerned for his well being, he could have been a robber as far as she knew. Her worry over him warmed his heart a little and chased away any lingering thoughts of the nightmare. He gave her a faint smile in return. The child seemed reassured by this and nodded her head, whether it was out of finality or lack of sleep Bliz wouldn't know. She turned around to go back to her room, their unspoken conversation over. She almost tripped over the blanket she dragged with her, and Bliz chuckled to himself at the sight of it. She closed the door, getting the blanket caught in it in the process, and leaving him alone again in the hallway.

Bliz went back to the barracks, slipping under the blankets quietly. He quickly fell into a deep and satisfyingly dreamless sleep...

* * *

Edger and Bliz walked along ahead of the rest of Crusade Squad. "Sir, I think we're lost," Edger said, gazing at the various fruit trees.

"We're not lost Edger. Simply…wandering." Bliz aimed his DC-15 blaster at nothing in particular.

"I think we're lost," Ridge piped up from the back of the group. Bliz was starting to like Ridge less and less.

"What's that?" Jax exclaimed. He ran over to something poking out of the bushes. Bliz zoomed in through his helmet.

It was a hand.

Cord had already rushed to Jax's side, helping him pull the woman out of the bush. He froze up when he saw who it was.

 _She's from my nightmare_ , Bliz thought, blood running cold again.

"She's still alive!" Cord called. He rolled the woman to balance against his knee while he propped her up. Blood was soaking through his glove from her bare back, he could feel it.

"They're…coming…" she barely managed to whisper.

"Who's coming?" Jax asked.

"Ma'am, I need you to stay with me," Cord said, checking her pulse.

"They…left…message…"

"What?" Jax and Cord asked simultaneously. The woman didn't answer.

She was gone.

"Wait." Jax carefully turned over her bruised body, examining her back. Three words written in crude Basic that made Bliz want to throw up.

_Watch your back._

"Watch your back…" Jax muttered to himself, unbelieving.

"Whoever it was that did this used her as a writing board," Marik whispered, horror evident in his voice.

The letters were carved into her back with a knife, and judging by the amount of blood, it had happened recently. _Like last night_ , Bliz thought. _That was where all of the blood had come from._ Bliz felt he was really going to throw up soon, but he stood stock still, eyes unmoving from the prone woman on the garden path. The letters were partly hidden from all of the blood, sloppy, but still readable.

Bliz saw Jax force a swallow. "We need to get her out of here." He stood up, carrying the woman in his arms. Bliz examined her face. She was so young; she couldn't have been more than nineteen or twenty years old. Bliz shook his head, trying to keep the images from his nightmare from coming back. He felt chill go down his spine, and he shivered despite the warm weather of the afternoon. Bliz could feel something was going to happen in the future, and he didn't like it. His blood continued to feel frigid in his body.

_They were coming back..._


	6. Threats and Emotions

Bliz walked down the hall next to Kiki, admiring the simple décor of the hallways.

"The children should be coming back today," Kiki said suddenly. Bliz flicked his gaze over to her, startled. His thoughts had been preoccupied on his nightmare from a few nights before, and what he saw in the garden. He tried not to let it bother him, but he found his mind constantly drifting to the nightmares he'd had since the first night of landing on Verocia.

"Won't children just make protecting the palace more challenging, sir?" Bliz couldn't help but voice.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine Bliz," Kiki reassured him. "Besides, they'll keep you on your toes when you're off-duty." Kiki smiled even though her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was getting through the Force, that something evil and dark was waiting out there somewhere. She had also been having nightmares, and they got progressively worse with each night. Kiki sighed. "Besides, I think you'll like them."

"Aunty!"

Kiki looked up to see five children rushing towards her with open arms. _Aunty?_ Bliz thought with confusion. Two of the children he'd already seen, the first being the little toddler Ri, and the second being the small girl from a few nights ago.

The first child hugged Kiki's legs, looking up into her face. "I missed you! And you owe me a birthday present!"

"Well, where's my hello?" Kiki asked, but she was smiling as well.

"Hello," Ri said, also hugging Kiki's leg.

"I'm assuming these are the children?" Marik asked, a slightly amused tone in his voice. Bliz had completely forgotten Crusade Squad was behind them.

"Yes, here are the children," Kiki said, waving her hand around her. Bliz saw the little girl from a few nights ago looking at him. Bliz tilted his head at her when she gave him a small smile.

"Aunty, who are they?" she asked.

"These men are here to keep you safe for a while," Kiki said, rubbing Ri's head affectionately.

Marik couldn't help but wonder how these children knew Kiki so well, or how they were supposed to do their job properly with kids in their way.

"I have to go now," Kiki said, prying one of the children off of her legs. All of them groaned.

"Do you have to go so soon, Aunty? Can't you stay a little longer?" A boy complained.

"Nope, I've got a lot of work to do." Kiki smiled apologetically.

"Maybe we could go talk to Mir!" One suggested. Kiki's smiled faded.

"You can't go talk to Mir right now. She's…she's not here at the moment." Kiki stepped back to next to Bliz. At first he was confused as to why they wouldn't be able to see this Mir woman.

 _Mir was to woman who was killed in the garden_ , Bliz thought with sudden realization. He started to feel sick to his stomach again at the thought that he might have been able to prevent her death. Maybe these kids could see her if she were still alive. Bliz shook his head. There was no use in thinking like that; it wouldn't bring Mir back to life. Bliz sighed within his helmet. Again, he felt that darkness lurking beyond his reach, and it gave him a chill down his spine. He caught movement outside the window, and it that moment, Bliz wanted nothing more than to run away.

Rex looked around at the shadows between the stalls. Occasionally, he would see a flash of movement, something that just didn't seem _natural_ even though they were surrounded by people.

"Rex, this way!" Ahsoka called ahead of him. Rex looked up to see Ahsoka waving at him from a colorful fruit stall.

Rex walked up beside her. He and Ahsoka had been sent out to the market in front of the palace to buy some fruits and supplies needed to do repairs on a LAAT/i. Although Rex wanted to wear his armor, the queen suggested he wear civilian clothing. She didn't want to risk the people to have a negative reaction to a clone trooper walking among them.

"Here you go," the vender said, handing them a bag of fruits.

"Thank you," Ahsoka said politely, handing him the money. Rex took the bag and turned around, not noticing the woman standing directly behind him until he body checked her, knocking both him and the woman to the ground.

" _Golmej nem saias_!" Rex said, apologizing in Verinese. That was one moment he was glad he took the time to learn the language when he and Ahsoka were supposed to be doing their undercover ops mission.

"It's okay, it was my fault," the woman said, bending over to help him pick up her dropped items. Rex looked up at the woman at the same time she looked up at him, and their eyes locked.

Her eyes were a strange shade of bright green, and they were pupil less like Kiki's. He could see darker specks of emerald in them, along with bright yellow. Her long, black, back-length hair was pulled into a loose pony tail, which fell over her shoulder. The woman's skin was a pale orange, with a pinkish tinge to it. Rex noticed when they first came to the planet that the people had skin pigmentation instead of discoloration, even though they were all mixed species.

"Are you two going to keep staring at each other, or are you going to help us pick up the fruits?" Rex snapped out of his staring and returned his attention to Ahsoka, who had a teenage boy standing next to her.

Rex felt himself begin to turn pink as he and the woman picked up the last of the fruits. Their hands touched, and Rex could feel his hand begin to buzz, like electricity running under his skin. Rex quickly pulled his hand away, reaching to pick another fruit just as it got run over by a cart. Rex yelped and yanked his away, getting up off the ground. He offered his hand to the woman, who took it and stood up. When they touched, her could feel the electricity again, but stronger. Rex pulled his hand away just as he caught sudden movement between two of the stalls, in an alley. He narrowed his eyes as he felt a chill roll down his spine.

"Did you see that?" the woman asked. Rex started, but kept his eyes on the space between the stalls.

"Yes," he answered eventually.

"Are you coming Rex?" Ahsoka asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Uh...yeah. I'll be right there," he said absently.

"Well, good bye then," the woman said, turning to walk away. Rex found himself not able to speak, so he nodded instead. "Oh and by the way, my name's Kanari." She smiled at Rex.

"U-uh…my name's Rex," he stammered out. Rex's face began heating as she sent him a smile that made his heart pick up. He turned around to see Ahsoka giving him a strange smile. "What?" he asked her. Ahsoka only shook her head and continued walking towards the palace. Rex sent a sharp look towards her back and followed.

* * *

"I'm not so sure about this," Anakin said as he viewed the holo-map. "There must be a better spot we can place our troops than here." Anakin pointed to another side of the map. "How about here?"

"That's too far, Anakin," Kiki said, sounding slightly impatient. "How are they supposed to get through here in time?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Anakin asked, shooting Kiki a look. They were all tired; lack of sleep due to nightmares did that to you. Kiki sighed and grumbled under her breath.

"Why do we need to work so hard on the placement of these troopers?" Danda asked. The usually talkative Padawan had remained silent up until then, so when she spoke, Kiki jumped a little.

"There've been sightings, and we want to make sure they're not true," Kiki said absently.

"Sightings of what, Master?" Ahsoka asked. Heavy silence overcame them as everybody refused to answer Ahsoka's question.

"Sorry for asking," Ahsoka said guiltily.

"No, it's okay Ahsoka," Anakin said quickly. "We've just been…unnerved…lately."

"Maybe we can place out troops here, Generals," Bliz offered, pointing to a specific spot on the holo-map and changing the subject. "That way, we have the entire castle surrounded."

"Hmm…" Kiki hummed thoughtfully. She felt a sudden chill roll down her spine as she looked through the wide window at the evening sun. It was quickly turning to nighttime, but that wasn't what Kiki was worried about. Every now and then, she would catch a swift movement through the bushes, one that was all too familiar. She shook it off and focused her attention back on the holo-map.

* * *

"Count Dooku," Queen Makoria said, a hint of iciness in her normally calm tone. "What brings you to call me at such an hour?"

"Queen Makoria, an honor to see you once again. I see you're doing well," the count said with a pleasant tone matching the queen's level of iciness. Queen Makoria gave him a look that said she was not in the mood for small talk while still retaining her regal manner. "About my previous offer…"

"I said no," Queen Makoria cut him off, an edge to her iciness.

"Feisty as most Verocian women, I see," Count Dooku said humorlessly. But even still, he smiled. "The Separatists have much to offer you, your highness. For instance, free govern and protection—"

"After what happened three years ago?" she interjected heatedly. "I'm sorry Count, but I cannot agree to a treaty after the war you waged on my people. We wanted to remain a neutral planet in your war but you refused to leave us be," the queen managed to hold in her barely contained anger. A finger twitched on her hand, which was tightly fisted behind her back.

"I know you have contacted the Jedi Council for assistance," count Dooku said with disgust on the words _Jedi Council_. "I have sources that tell me what you are doing every day. I know you have Skywalker and your beloved Jorani there." He smiled darkly. Queen Makoria felt a chill go down her spine as she caught swift movement from through the large windows, dark scales on a large body. "The Republic is not to be trusted. They will pledge their allegiance and turn and sell you like dogs for their own pleasure."

"And the Separatists will run down our homes and drive everyone into poverty and hunger, leaving nothing but those heaven-forsaken _droids_ in their wake. You do not still believe I will join your 'cause' after I have seen firsthand what your forces will do in seconds? My people are completely capable of taking care of themselves. We have lived peacefully and my family has for two hundred years and we will do so for another two hundred. We do not need your help," she said angrily, her fist so tight behind her back the knuckles were ghost-white.

Count Dooku sighed. "I see I will not be changing your mind any time soon, your highness?" Queen Makoria glared. "Very well then," the count said. "I bid you a good evening," he said, bowing. The queen did not return the bow, instead turning off the transmitter; promptly cutting off Count Dooku's bent form.

Queen Makoria sighed and leaned against the projector, placing a cool hand on her forehead. She closed her eyes, trying to calm the rushing feelings inside of her. After a few minutes, she stood up and exited her antechamber to prepare for bed…

* * *

_He was surrounded by black, yet he could see shadows swirling and writhing around him. He was completely alone until he heard the voices. Dark figures loomed in front of Rex, hissing and spitting madly. "We're coming for you…" they hissed over and over. Rex covered his ears to try and drown out their abrasive voices, but they managed to penetrate his thoughts._

_Rex opened his eyes and saw a woman's form lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Rex's own blood ran cold as he recognized who it was._

_Kanari._

" _Thiss was your fault!" the voices hissed again in his ear. "All your fault!"_

" _No!" Rex shouted—or tried to. He couldn't find his voice, he could barely even breathe. "NO!" he shouted louder._

_The image in front of him changed from Kanari to a Twi'lek woman with blue skin. She was lying on her side, but Rex knew exactly who it was. "It…it can't be—"_

" _It'ss true!" those same voices hissed in his ear. "She died because of you! You killed her!" Rex shook his head fervently._

" _No!" he shouted. "I don't believe you! That's not true! Shut up!" He looked at the woman on the cold ground, from her charred skin to the blood pooling around her cold body. "I didn't do this…" Rex's voice shook, his entire body was shaking._

_The image changed yet again…_

_To a child…_

" _NO!" Rex screamed. He closed his eyes, trying to keep the gruesome image out of his head, from the wide-open eyes, staring blankly up at nothing, to the beyond burned skin on his face, arms, and legs, to his small mouth opened in a silent scream. Even with his eyes closed, he could see the look of pain and horror on the Twi'lek child's face. Rex knew that they were dead, the woman and the child, but he refused to let it scare him. Kanari was still alive, still breathing, he was sure of it._

" _She will die because of you!" the voices screeched in his head in response to Rex's thoughts. Rex sank to his knees, still shaking his head and feeling cold all over._

_Everything went quiet._

_Rex was shaking, he could feel his skin begin to crawl with goose bumps, from his shoulders down to his legs. A scaly arm appeared in front of him._

" _No!" he tried to shout, but his voice was lost again. The arm led to a large, scaly hand with long finger nails which quickly tightened itself around Rex's throat._

" _You're next…"The hand tightened, and a dagger materialized in the air, along with another hand with long, sharp fingernails. The dagger plunged into Rex's gut, driving deeper and deeper with each breath he took._

_Rex looked down to find himself surrounded by an ocean of blood. He was drowning, sinking farther and farther, completely surrounded by black. Pain seared through Rex's entire body as he sank lower, the dagger still stuck in his stomach._

" _We're coming for you!" the voices spat over and over. "We're coming…"_

Rex sat up and opened his eyes. He couldn't breathe, and all he could see was black for a moment. His sight cleared up, and he saw the pale moonlight flooding the room through the massive window he was near. He sat up and took deep breaths until his racing heart calmed. Rex shivered and rubbed his arms, feeling the cold sweat that covered his entire body. He looked around, seeing that the others were at least having more peaceful nights than he was. Rex knew that there was no point in trying to go back to sleep, but he lay down on his side anyway…

* * *

The next morning, Rex sat at the large island in the middle of the kitchen that was for their use. Kanari had been keeping it clean for them, because as it turned out, she was a servant of the palace and often visited while the men were on duty to cook and clean for them.

Bliz teased Rex every chance he got when they happened to be around Kanari, which meant his reactions were beginning to show to everyone, not just Ahsoka. He looked down at the bowl of cold soup from last night's supper.

Rex had not gotten a single bit of sleep after he woke from the nightmare, so he stayed in bed counting down the hours, minutes, seconds, till dawn. He couldn't stand being idle when the sun was up, so he went to the kitchen to get himself something to eat before armoring up. Pale yellow-pink sunlight came in through the skylight in the ceiling and the large windows that surrounded him. Even though it was summer on Verocia, the mornings were chilly, and Rex rubbed his bare arms up and down. He hadn't thought to put on his long-sleeved shirt after he got up, so he was only in a pair of knee-length sleeping shorts. Just as he was planning on leaving to get his shirt, a voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"Cold soup for breakfast?"

Rex looked up to see Kanari walking into the spacious kitchen, a small smile on her lips. "Morning," she said brightly. She strolled to the cupboard and started taking out pots and pans. It was a moment before Rex answered her greeting

"Uh…good morning," he stammered out. Right then, he felt like the biggest idiot in the galaxy. He couldn't function around her, and for a moment, Rex thought that Kanari had poisoned his food to make him stumble. Kanari giggled softly to herself as she brought out items to begin cooking. A blush creeped up Rex's neck as he realized he had nothing on but a pair of shorts. He scrubbed a hand over his face and heaved a heavy sigh.

"Are you okay? You're being awfully quiet," she asked with concern in her voice. Rex felt his heartbeat pick up and his face burn even more when she looked at him. He also noticed the slight accent she had when she spoke, which only made his heartbeat speed up even more.

"I'm…I'm fine," he said, sighing again. "Just tired." The next thing he knew, Kanari was by his side, close enough for him to feel the heat coming off of her—unless he was just imagining it.

"What happened?" she asked quietly. Rex couldn't focus with her looking at him like that, her bright green gaze boring into Rex's brown one. He averted his eyes to the soup left on the table.

"It's…it's just lack of sleep. I-I'm fine." Rex hated the way he stammered when he was around Kanari, but it seemed he couldn't help it. Rex leaned back slightly to try and put some distance between them.

"Was it a nightmare?" she asked, concern evident and plain in her eyes. She seemed to lean closer, and Rex's heart raced to a point where he was sure she could hear it. He couldn't trust himself to not stammer, so he nodded once.

The concern in her look grew, along with sympathy of what he was going through. Out of the corner of his eye, Rex saw Kanari's hand move up toward him. She rested it on his shoulder, squeezing once, gently. Her eyes flicked briefly down to Rex's chest, and he realized all over again that he was only wearing shorts. He heard the very slight intake of breath from her, and his face burned even more.

When she pulled away, Rex's felt as if his skin on his shoulder had caught fire, along with the electricity he had felt earlier, _which_ was then spreading to the rest of his body. In a flash, Kanari was back at the stove, chattering happily as if nothing had happened. "I'll make you something tasty to take your mind off of these problems. Have you ever had flamjas?"

Rex wasn't focusing on what she was saying; he was examining his shoulder where Kanari had touched him earlier. It wasn't red or swollen, and there didn't seem to be any sort of rash developing. But even still, Res decided he would visit Cord about what he was feeling, just to make sure he wasn't sick. Rex looked up when he heard the end of her question. "I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't hear you." He ignored the way his stomach felt fluttery.

Kanari laughed, which sent a pleasant tingling down Rex's spine. "I asked is you've ever had flamjas before. It's very good—if you cook it right." She smiled.

Rex slowly shook his head. "I've only ever had civilian food once," he answered, glad that his voice didn't stall or stutter.

"Well, you're about to have it twice," she joked.

* * *

Rex wandered on his own through the twisting gardens of the palace, admiring the variety of plants and animals. The center was his favorite; he found he could always concentrate better when the only other sound was the fountain water splashing into the pool below it. He would occasionally look at the colorful fish they had and sit on the benches to relax. He even ran into Kanari once or twice while she was picking berries off of the bushes. Rex heard a noise, and he was immediately snapped out of his daydream. He looked to where he heard the noise, and stopped walking when he saw what— _who_ —it was.

"Sir!" Rex said, clone trooper protocol immediately kicking in. "Sir, what happened? Can you tell me anything?"

The man looked up at Rex with clouded, pupil less red eyes. "They're…coming…back…" he coughed, spilling blood on his chest.

"Who? Who's coming back? I need you to stay awake for me, I'm going to call for help."

"No…" the man said, slowly shaking his head. "Too…late. They left a…a message…" His face contorted in pain as he rolled onto his side. "You need…to stop them…please…"

"Who? Sir, I'm going to get you out of this, just stay with me. Who left the message?" Rex checked the young man's vitals through his helmet and saw that they were dropping rapidly.

"It was…it was… the li—"The light faded from the man's eyes as his life left him.

A dark chill crept down Rex's spine, making him shiver despite the warming temperature. Rex felt something form itself in his chest, something dark and heavy. He looked at the man's back to see writing…

 _We're coming for you_ …

Rex's blood went cold inside his body as he read the words over and over. They had been carved into his back, just like what happened to the woman. A small, sharp knife was flicked in his direction. He picked it up with a shaky hand and examined the blade. It was covered in sticky blood, down to the handle he held in his hand. It shone in the morning light.

Rex heard a low hissing noise, like _laughter_ , coming from a bush to his left. His head snapped up and he scanned the area. The laughter died down, and dark scaly skin slinked away through the bushes. Rex took in a shuddery breath as he turned the young man on his back to look at his face.

His pale blonde hair fell over his eyes, and he had an almost peaceful look on his face. Blonde hair was not common on Verocia; most of the civilians had either black hair or no hair. Rex pondered over who the man's family could have been as he slowly turned the body over again. He was getting blood on his armor, he knew it, but he didn't want to leave just yet.

"Bliz, are you awake?" Rex struggled to keep the terror out of his voice as he commed the commander.

"I am now," Bliz said groggily. "Rex—"

"I need you to come down here." Rex cut him off.

Bliz was instantly wide awake when he heard the urgency in Rex's voice. "Rex, what's going on?" Rex heard small shuffling noises come through the comm as Bliz armored up.

"It…it happened again."

All noises ceased as Bliz went over what Rex said in his head, understanding what he meant but refusing to believe it. "I'll be right there." The line cut off.

Rex laid the man down on his back when Bliz came rushing up behind him. His footsteps fell short as he took in the sight of the bruised and battered young man—who couldn't have been more than twenty—lying on the cold pathway. Bliz swore harshly under his breath.

"Why is this happening?" Bliz asked after contacting Kiki. "Why? They can't be coming back; we made sure of that three years ago." Bliz's voice shook slightly.

"I…don't know, Bliz," Rex said after a few minutes of silence. "But…it's like I can _feel_ it, feel the evil from those monsters." Rex's fist clenched and he pushed down the dark memories that tried to resurface in his mind.

They could both feel it, both feel the darkness that surrounded them despite the bright sunlight.

* * *


	7. Nightmares and Secrets

Their time at Verocia was coming to a close, and everyone –Crusade Squad, Kiki, Rex, and Anakin –was glad for it. The sightings were getting worse along with their nightmares. None of them were getting any sleep, and each day was harder than the last. Kanari tried as best she could to comfort Rex each morning after the nightmares, as she did for everybody.

Ri- the two year old who called Kiki "aunty"- seemed to have a growing fear of Anakin. It would have been comical had the child not gotten so scared to a point of not wanting to be in the same room as him.

Even the children were starting to get affected. They claimed to be seeing "monsters" pass by the windows and through the bushes. "I swear, I saw one!" one child would complain, to the clones. The men would try as best they could to pass it off as their "imagination" or a story they were making up.

Each day brought new facts to squash that notion…

The words "Lizard War" would pass often between two clones as they went about their daily tasks, trying to figure out if the nightmare of three years earlier would relive itself or if they would leave the planet safely.

Captain Rex's "a week at the most" had been bumped up to a week and a half. They all knew that this would end up happening, but even still they had hoped it wouldn't have had to be…

OoOoOoO

**The Children's Nightmares:**

"Uncle!"

Ridge rolled over in his bed and continued to sleep.

"Uncle, wake up!"

"Mmm…what?" Ridge was not amused that someone would decide to wake him up so early. He looked at the chrono in the corner of the room by the window—the Commander's side. It read 0300 (oh three-hundred hours). "It's three in the morning!" he hissed with annoyance and impatience. Ridge began drifting off to sleep again.

"Uncle, can I sleep here?" Ridge was awake enough to answer.

"No."

"Uncle please!"

Ridge rolled over to see which of the five palace children was trying to prevent him from having a good night's sleep—as good as it would get. It was Limmy, the youngest and shiest of the five. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight as she looked at Ridge with equally pale, large silver eyes. The children had taken to calling their male superiors "uncle"—a sign of respect on Verocia and its moons. The same went for the females: "aunt" or "aunty".

"Why?" he asked, against his better judgment. He was losing sleep, the nightmares of his brothers keeping him up at night. Although he didn't say anything unless it was to one who would leave after a fit—offering, or trying to offer, words of comfort as they went to take a walk about the palace in the middle of the night—they could see it in his eyes with the dark circles that lined the underside, in the way he stood early in the morning; shoulders hunched and neck slightly bent. When he spoke, it was slower than with his usual speed and brightness.

"I saw monsters in the halls outside my room," was Limmy's immediate answer.

"There's no such thing as monsters," Ridge muttered as he turned toward the window again, rolling away from the small girl.

"Uncle please…I'm scared." She sounded close to tears, and tears were the last things that Ridge wanted at the moment. He heard her hiccup—it could have been a gasp—as he lay there, contemplating her answer. Just at that moment, he felt a cold, spiky chill roll down his spine, and he thought he heard a slight rushing noise in the hall through the open door. His skin grew goose bumps, and at that moment, he didn't want to be alone—no matter that his brothers were a few bunks down. He wasn't about to go to them in the middle of the night and complain of being "scared", they would hate him even more than they already did—although he didn't know why.

Also, he didn't exactly want Limmy going back through the halls at night, on her own. He didn't know what it was he was feeling—he was no Force-sensitive—but it was dark and evil-feeling. He didn't want that darkness hurting Limmy. Besides, he'd grown a sort…soft spot (as you could say) for her, considering how she was the youngest, quiet-around-new-people one of the group—just like him.

"Ok, fine. Climb in," Ridge said a little begrudgingly. He rolled over again and picked up the edge of the blanket, allowing her enough space to crawl into. Just as she got in, he rolled back over to the window.

Her small body was surprisingly warm, and the chill he felt still rushing down his spine from earlier dissipated as she snuggled closer to his back.

"Uncle?" Limmy asked, her breath warm on his bare back.

"Mmmhmm?" Ridge was already falling asleep.

"What's this on your back?" She lightly traced a swirling tattoo on his shoulder meant to resemble fire.

"It's fire," Ridge answered, his words slurring slightly. "Don' touch it."

The faint swirling feeling on the back of his shoulder stopped, moving to a thin solid bar on his left arm, and a line of thorns a few inches under it.

"What's this one mean?" Limmy asked, her curiosity seemingly endless.

Ridge didn't answer, he was already asleep. The last thing he remembered before the world drowned out around him was the feel of Limmy's body pressing closer to his back, and the feel of a slight smile spreading across his lips—the first real smile since anyone arrived on Verocia…

OoOoOoO

Anakin tossed and turned in his bed. There was a darkness lurking in the halls of the palace, he could feel it—everyone could feel it, even the Padawans, who had never had to deal with the horrors that the others had to three years before. Anakin shivered at the thought of what had happened at The Lizard War, how he still had nightmares—occasionally, but they happened.

The door opened behind him, and the chill that Anakin had felt all day raced throughout his entire body. Almost instinctively, he curled in toward himself. Her heard movements on part of the large bed behind him, like someone slipping underneath the blankets. A second shuffling was heard in front of Anakin.

"Uncle?" a soft, high voice asked. Anakin cracked his eyes open. His vision cleared as he saw one of the five palace children in front of, kneeling on the bed. "Uncle, can we sleep here?" Another shifting noise behind him sounded. It was most likely the second of the pair that were always seen with each other around the palace halls. They weren't twins, but they sure acted like it.

Just to be sure, Anakin rolled over and met the eyes of Rili, who was looking at him intently, albeit the frightened look in her eyes.

"We saw monsters, Uncle," she said seriously.

"Monsters?" Anakin wasn't quite sure he believed that. Even still, he looked out the window across the hall from his room. He didn't see anything.

"Please, Uncle?" the first one—Shora—asked.

"Mm…fine," Anakin said a little groggily. The two girls climbed under the blanket next to Anakin. He lifted his gaze to the window in his room, directly across from him. He saw something in the corner of the window, but the clouds were blocking the bright moon, preventing him from making out what it was. The clouds briefly passed to reveal…

Claws.

Anakin subconsciously shivered despite the warm blanket, and he felt all of the blood drain from his face. The long claws were connected to a dark, scaly hand, which slowly went down passed the sill, and out of sight, making a faint but noticeable screeching noise.

"Uncle, what was that?" Rili asked from behind Anakin.

It was a moment before Anakin answered. "Nothing, go to sleep, girls." He brought the blanket closer to himself and the small children. The blanket was considerably warmer with Shora and Rili there, but Anakin was okay with that—he realized he had been cold before the girls arrived.

OoOoOoOo

**Waking Up from the Nightmares:**

Ridge woke up to the sound of snickering coming from above him. He cracked open his eyes, squinting against the glaring sunlight that immediately pervaded them.

"Isn't this just adorable?" a voice from far away said. There was more laughing as Ridge shifted in his bed. The last thing he wanted to do at the moment was wake up, he'd been having such a nice sleep…

Ridge opened his eyes wider since the snickering wouldn't stop. Above him was Edger—or what he could make out of him, his image was blurred. "So," Edger said, a teasing tone in his voice, "how'd your sleep go?"

Ridge scrubbed a hand across his eyes. "Mmm…what?" Everything around him was foggy, and the voices seemed muffled. A similar noise of protest sounded from beside him, small hands hugging his arm. It was then that Ridge woke up.

Limmy lay next to him in the small bed, sleeping soundly except for the noise she made earlier.

Everything that happened the night—or early morning—before came flooding back on top of him, from Limmy's frightened voice to the dark feelings he was getting until her arrival. Ridge's arm was across her smaller body over the blanket. Limmy lay curled towards him. Ridge had trouble remembering why they had ended up like this. The memory lit up in his mind like a flame. Something had crashed.

_Ridge was fast asleep beside Limmy, both of them snoring softly. Ridge shifted and turned over against the chill that came back with a vengeance. Limmy moved closer to Ridge's back to stay under the blanket._

_A loud crash from outside woke the both of them up. Limmy snapped her eyes open and looked around frantically. "Uncle, what was that?" she asked, the earlier fear present in her voice again._

_Ridge's heart beat picked up as he looked through the window from his bed. "It's probably just some kids playing a prank, go back to sleep." Ridge turned his back to the window and set his arm across Limmy, hugging her slightly._

" _Is it the monsters again?" Limmy asked, her voice shook, not from tears, but from pure terror._

" _I honestly don't know, kid," Ridge said, regretting it immediately. Limmy squeaked and shrunk under the blanket. Ridge sighed and sat up, pulling Limmy into his lap. "Listen, kid," Ridge said quietly. Limmy looked tilted her head back to see him. "Even if there were monsters, I wouldn't let them get to you, alright? No need to be afraid." Ridge hoped his tone was soothing enough to quell the seven-year-old's fears._

" _Okay," Limmy said, nodding her head. Another crashing sound assaulted their eardrums, along with a more muffled noise—a shout. Limmy flinched and curled herself into a tight ball, tears beginning to gather in her eyes._

 _Ridge also felt like hiding away, but he stayed stock-still and held Limmy even tighter. He couldn't shake the dark feeling that he felt inside his chest, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it. He wanted to go outside to see what the problem was, but that would mean leaving Limmy alone, and he wasn't sure if he could do that._ The guards outside will take care of it _, Ridge thought unconvincingly. "Hey Limmy," he said soothingly._

_Limmy sniffed and looked up. "Mm?" She rubbed and eye._

" _Do you like lullabies?" he asked softly. Limmy slowly nodded her head. "Good," Ridge said brightly, but still quietly—he didn't want the others to wake up and hear what he was about to do. "I think I know some lullabies, would you like to hear one?" Ridge asked. He cradled Limmy in his lap, swaying back and forth gently._

_Ridge didn't think his voice was very good, although others had told him he had an amazing voice (but they only knew that when they snuck up on him).He'd never sung to anybody, or for anybody. It was always quietly and when he was alone. Limmy seemed to calm down as she sniffed and listened to the lyrics._

" _Hush lapseni, manna nukkuman, lapseni…" Ridge sang softly. He didn't know what exactly the words meant, they weren't in basic, but he'd heard a woman sing it to her crying child one time, after a battle, and the song stuck in his head. He rubbed Limmy's back as she slowly fell into an uneasy sleep. Ridge went to sleep soon after._

Ridge sat up in bed and looked around at the smirking faces around him—excluding Cord.

"This is beyond adorable," Edger said, smirking and crossing his arms. Someone hit his arm. "What? It is," he said in his own defense.

Limmy began waking up. "Uncle?" she said, rolling over to face Ridge. "Oh, good morning, Uncle," she said sleepily, but smiling. "And good morning uncle," she greeted, not looking at any of the clones in particular.

"And how did this come to be?" Jax asked, motioning to the still groggy Limmy in Ridge's bed. Ridge sighed.

"She came to me and said she saw some monsters, so I let her sleep with me during the night," Ridge said, half shrugging a shoulder. He involuntarily shivered slightly at the memory of the dark chills that had rolled down his spine early in the morning. "She was probably just having nightmares," he said, much against the actual reason.

"Uncle?" Limmy sat up in bed. "Are the monsters gone?" She pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Yeah, they're gone," Ridge said, rubbing her head affectionately. Limmy smiled.

"Good, let's go find aunty!" She hopped out from the covers with a new found energy that hadn't been evident earlier. She came around the bed and tugged on Ridge's arm playfully. "Come on!" she said, pulling harder. "Let's go see if we can wake her up!"

"Alright, alright! I'm coming." Ridge stood up and walked out of the room, little Limmy tugging his hand.

Rex gave Ridge a small smile that spoke thousands of volumes. _Good job, kid_ , it said. Ridge felt a swelling in his chest, a feeling he was not used to. He did not get praised often. Rex nodded curtly before turning to go suit up for the day.

The entire time, Limmy didn't say anything about the singing.

OoOoOoO

Anakin rolled over in his bed, turning away from the light that came through the door Rili and Shora had left open the night before. Two small bodies moved closer to their primary source of warmth as Anakin basically pulled the blanket off of both of them.

Anakin heard footsteps fall quietly on the carpeted floor. "See? I told you he was asleep!" a female's voice said.

"Wow, your master must be a deep sleeper, then," another girl's voice said.

Ahsoka walked closer to Anakin's bed. "Master, wake up!" She shook his shoulder. "Don't you want breakfast?"

"Maybe he needs his beauty sleep," Danda said cheekily. Ahsoka snickered at her friends joke and continued to shake Anakin.

"Mrrrmm…Go away Ahsoka!" Anakin snapped, not appearing from under the blanket.

"Master, come on! Waaake uuuup," Ahsoka said, poking Anakin in various places.

"D- it, Ahsoka! Just let me sleep!" Anakin growled.

"Uncle, d- it is a bad word," a little voice said from under his blanket.

"What the—" Ahsoka pulled up the blanket in front of Anakin, revealing Rili.

"Good morning!" she said brightly.

"Rili, if d- it is a bad word, you shouldn't be saying it," Shora said from behind Anakin.

"Neither of you should be saying it!" Danda said from the door. She crossed her arms and leaned against the frame.

Shora popped her up from behind Anakin. "I'm hungry," she announced to no one in particular. "Let's see what's in the kitchen!" She jumped off the bed and raced through the door, nearly knocking into Danda on her way out. Rili raced close by behind her.

"You coming master?" Ahsoka asked from the doorway.

"Maybe later, Snips," Anakin said, his voice muffled under the blanket. Ahsoka sighed and walked out the door.

OoOoOoOo

The next morning, Kiki ignored the incessant knocking on her door. She moved farther under the blankets. It was the first night without nightmares, and she wanted it to last as long as possible.

The door opened seemingly of its own accord, and bright yellow sunlight came in through the wide window from across the hall.

"I told you she was in here!" Limmy stage whispered.

"T-this is the General's room!" a clone Kiki couldn't identify said. She was too tired to try and figure it out.

"So?" Limmy asked in all innocence. "Aunty, where's Ri?" Limmy asked, skipping to the bed. She dragged a reluctant Ridge in behind her.

"I don't think I should be—" Ridge began, but kept quiet when he saw that Kiki was sleeping.

"She's right here," Kiki answered giving up all hope on getting more sleep. Kiki lifted up the edge of the blanket to reveal little Ri sleeping with the tip of her thumb in her mouth.

Ri squeezed her eyes tight and turned away from the light filtering through the door, pressing her face into Kiki's chest. "No!" she said.

"She said she saw monsters last night," Kiki said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Are you coming to breakfast, aunty?" Limmy asked, crawling onto Kiki's wide bed.

"Maybe later, Limmy," Kiki said, pulling the blanket up again. Limmy pouted, but quickly got over her momentary sadness.

"Okay! Uncle, let's go exploring!"

"Exploring?" Ridge asked, allowing himself to be dragged yet again by Limmy.

* * *

**Secrets:**

Rex knew he wasn't the only person who noticed how friendly Kiki and the queen were. It was as if they had known each other their entire lives. At first, Rex had entertained the thought that they could be related, but quickly squashed it. If Kiki were actually related to the queen, she most likely would have stayed at the palace instead of becoming a Jedi to perform her royal duties. That was Rex's reasoning, anyway.

Another thing Rex didn't fail to notice was Kiki's late…behavior. He knew exactly why she was acting the way she was, but every little sign he saw of her ailment startled him. Yes, the recent probability—although small—of a second Lizard War scared all of them, but she'd been acting stranger and stranger each day, and it was starting to show.

Pale sunlight flooded through the large windows and spilled across the island in the kitchen. Just- after dawn was becoming Rex's favorite part of the day. Then, he felt he could clear his head of whatever nightmares had plagued him the night before. It was quiet and cool, with a seemingly natural peaceful air around it. Rex sighed almost-contentedly and looked down at his usual bowl of soup before him. If he knew how to safely work the stove top, he would heat it.

Kanari strolled into the kitchen, humming quietly to herself. She went to the nearest cupboard and started pulling out a few bowls.

" _Bomata_ , Kanari," Rex greeted in Verinese. He was becoming more comfortable around Kanari—something he was glad about, or else Bliz's incessant teasing would never stop.

Kanari jumped and dropped a bowl on the clean, dark counter, making it clatter before she placed a hand on top of it. "Oh, sorry Rex!" she said, spinning quickly. Her accent was more prominent when Rex startled her—which tended to be often—and Rex felt a warm tingle light up his spine. " _Bomata_ ," she said, bowing ever so slightly.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Rex said hastily. His eyes drifted down to his soup on their own.

"It's okay," Kanari said cheerily. She continued pulling ingredients out of cupboards. "So," she said, "what kind of flamjas would you like today?"

Rex froze. Kanari had never asked him what he wanted before. His silence seemed to amuse her. "Yes, I'm asking you," she said, smiling brightly in such a way that made Rex's insides melt.

"Oh, um…" Rex stumbled for a moment, his face beginning to bloom into varying shades of pink. "Can you make the fruit ones that you made a few days ago?" He rubbed that back of his head sheepishly.

"Sure!" Kanari hummed while she worked, a sound that made Rex feel sharp electricity run through is veins.

A few minutes later, Kiki walked in, looking tired, but hungry. "Good morning, Kanari. Rex," she said, rubbing an eye. "So, what's for breakfast?" She sat down at the island, still looking quite tired.

"I'm making _ovotsi_ flamjas. Rex chose them," Kanari said, mixing ingredients in a bowl.

Kiki raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" she asked. "I see you've come to love Kanari's cooking, Captain," Kiki said teasingly.

Rex's face went from light pink to dark red in a matter of seconds. "N-no sir! It's not like that! I—"

" _Relax_ Rex! I'm only teasing," Kiki said, giggling.

Just then, Queen Makoria walked through the door. She waved of Rex's salute before he even got up. "It's too early in the morning for that," she said, hiding a small yawn behind her hand. Makoria's jet black hair—much like Kiki's—flowed down her back in waves reaching her waist, and she wore loose-fitting pants and a top instead of her royal regalia from the days before.

Rex's eyebrow shot up to his hairline—he couldn't help it. Kanari caught the look and gave him a half shrug, half smile, and half eye roll, as if to say _this is our queen in the morning_.

"And good morning to my favorite sister," Makoria said, giving Kiki a tight hug.

Rex froze.

"You did it again, Your Highness," Kanari said from the stove. Makoria's eyes widened.

"Oh, Kiki I'm so sorry," Makoria said. "I'm so clumsy all the time I—" Her gaze locked onto Rex.

Rex's blood went from frozen to rushing powerfully and loudly through his veins.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Makoria asked, giving Rex a look that said he wouldn't be able to deny it.

"N-no Your Highness," Rex said, moving to stand and make a salute again. Rex's thoughts strayed to Kiki's first secret—one that he had sworn not to tell. Now, he had to heavy secrets to carry on his shoulders, both of which made him extremely nervous. Yet again, Makoria waved his salute off. Rex sat down and looked at Kiki's waistline, not intending to. He could see pale blue skin peeking through a shirt that should have been perfectly form-fitting for her.

It was starting to show.

"Besides," Kiki said. "I'm your only sister." She drew small circular patterns on the table top.

"Don't say that! That's too much depression in the morning," Makoria said.

"Wait, you're her sister?!" Kiki, Makoria, Rex, and Kanari all spun to the voice at the entryway.

Anakin stood completely rigid, eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open.

"Oh no," Makoria said under her breath.

"How come I didn't know this?" Anakin asked walking into the kitchen.

"What's it to you who I'm related to?" Kiki snapped defensively.

"This kind of revelation completely changes the mission! Does the council know?" Anakin couldn't help but glare at Kiki.

"What kind of dumb question is that? It was the council that brought me to the stupid temple in the first place! Why do you care anyway? It's none of your business!" Kiki snarled.

"You do realize that there are many missions we could have gone through safely if you had—" Anakin began. Kiki froze, her violet eyes growing dark.

Kiki shot up out of her chair. "Shut up Anakin! You have no right to—"

"Guys, guys please!" Makoria said, walking between the two of them. "No fighting right now. I know we're all tired from lack of sleep, but quarreling isn't going to help, especially when there are children around." She pointed to Rili, Shora, and Limmy, all of which were hiding behind Anakin's legs.

"How did you not know that Aunty Makoria and Aunty Kiri were sisters? Everybody knows that," Limmy said. She pulled Ridge in with her, who also had a shocked look on his face.

"Kanari, are you almost done with those flamjas?" Makoria said, trying to change the subject.

"I only have a few done," she answered, putting a plate in front of Rex.

 _This is certainly a lot to take in_ , ridge thought. _Wait, that means she's a_ princess _!_

"If you didn't know that aunty is a princess, that's pretty sad. Everyone on Verocia knows that," Rili said, climbing onto the tall chair at the island.

"Rili!" Kiki hissed. "Sure, go ahead and tell everyone in the galaxy my secret!"

"Including the one about the b—" Shora began. Kiki clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I was being sarcastic, and they're called secrets for a reason," she said, an annoyed tone obvious in her voice.

"Is it okay if I already told some of my uncles that you were a princess?" Shora asked. Kiki groaned. "Well, I don't think it matters now. They didn't believe me."

"Now we do," Marik said from the doorway.

"Do we have to call you your highness instead of General now?" Edger asked.

Kiki looked up to see all of Crusade Squad crowding around the entryway to the kitchen. _Isn't this just great_ , Kiki thought sarcastically. "Call me 'you highness' and I'll kill you," she said. "So Kanari, when is that food going to be finished?"

"I'm almost done, you can come take some now, if you want," she said. Kiki gladly accepted the slight distraction.

Jax, the last to come in, took a little longer to process the whole thing. He sat quietly at the table while everyone else chatted. To think that all of this time, he'd had feelings for a princess instead of a regular Jedi general. Kiki never acted like royalty; she yelled, she swore, and she hit whoever annoyed her. Jax felt his blood run cold through his veins. What is she found out about his feelings for her or—as Edger called it—crush? Jax didn't know what powers Kiki held over commoners and soldiers such as himself.

"Hey," Edger whispered to Jax. He flicked his eyes over to Kiki, then raised an eyebrow, smirking.

Jax glared. There were times when Edger acted as Jax's best friend, and he was grateful for that, but there were others when he was just a plain nuisance. Jax decided then and there that he would do everything in his power to keep Kiki from finding out about how he really felt for her. _It doesn't matter anyway, I'll see a pretty woman from another planet and then I'll forget about this petty thing for the general_ , Jax thought unconvincingly.

OoOoO

**Ri's Special Gift:**

Ri rolled the small ball to Marik, who caught it and rolled it back. Ri laughed.

Makoria looked fondly at Ri for a moment before going back to her conversation with Anakin and Kiki over the newest threats from the Separatists.

"I swear I could hang Dooku for this," queen Makoria said. "What have we done to him to deserve this kind of treatment?"

Kiki chuckled. "That's Dooku for you."

Anakin was beginning to get used to Queen Makoria's informal demeanor. She was like Kiki, in a way—minus the cursing and death threats on his life. Something Anakin had not been able to get used to was the fact the Ri was afraid of him.

Ri stood up and ran to Kiki's leg. "Hi aunty!" she said jovially.

"Hey there Ri, how are ya?" Kiki said, bending over to pat Ri's head. She giggled and ducked her head.

"Hey Ri, do you want to build a block tower with me?" Marik asked from the floor. Ri vigorously nodded her head and ran back to Marik, tripping when she reached her toys.

Anakin didn't understand why Ri only had a fear of him, and not anyone else. He pushed the thought to the back of his head as he looked at the holo-map of the planet of Verocia. On one side, there were seventy-two moons, all varying in size and shape. A few miles out, in empty space, was a Separatist ship, just beyond the line that marked the Outer Rim from the Mid Rim. Verocia was so close to the Outer Rim that some of its moons were less than a mile from actually being in it. Most lazy sailors marked Verocia as Outer Rim as well. On the other side of the planet was a Republic fleet.

Anakin looked back up to see Rim trying to climb on top of Marik. When their eyes met, she hid behind Marik's back. Anakin sighed and looked at the holo-map. When their eyes met, she hid behind Marik's back. Anakin sighed and looked at the holo-map. He sensed something in the child, but he couldn't tell what it was, or whether it really mattered. She seemed to always know when he was around, sometimes before he even walked into a room.

"Well, it's better if we get this over with without any confrontation from the Separatists," Kiki said, reaching for her glass of juice. Her hand knocked into the side of her glass instead of grabbing it, and the cup fell off the holo-projector.

The glass didn't hit the ground, though. It was being held up by the Force—but it wasn't Kiki or Anakin.

Ri looked up, hands held out and splayed before her, a bright smile on her face.

Ri was using the Force.

Queen Makoria stood still for a moment before slowly bending over to pluck the glass out of the air, placing it back on the holo-projector. She sighed. 'I was hoping it wouldn't come to this…" she said quietly.

"Wait, you knew?" Kiki said, whirling on Makoria. "How long?"

"I guess ever since she was born. I always knew there was something special about her." Queen Makoria smiled sadly and bent over to pick up her niece.

Kiki's head was racing—as was Anakin's. The last thing she wanted was Ri being taken to the Temple to be trained as a Jedi. She knew that Anakin would tell Obi-wan the first chance he had. She watched him as his face went from wonder to deep contemplation. "Don't tell," Kiki said immediately.

"How am I not supposed to tell the Council?" Anakin snapped.

"By keeping your mouth shut!" Kiki glared at Anakin. "This is none of your business, anyway. Just pretend it didn't happen."

"I can't just pretend that this didn't happen!" Anakin said loudly. He looked at Ri, which made her cower and hide try to hide her face in Makoria's dress. Anakin's face softened a little. "Kiki this is important. She could be in danger if she stays here and she's a Force-sensitive—"

"What danger?" Kiki interrupted him heatedly. "You should let Makoria take care if her own niece's issues."

"The danger being that we have Separatists right outside our doorstep!" Anakin yelled, waving to the large windows.

"Whatever," Kiki seethed. "You are not telling the Council about this! She does not need to go to that Temple."

Anakin couldn't believe what Kiki was saying. She would actually risk this child's life because of some vendetta she had against the Council. Everyone knew that—although she almost never disclosed her reasons—she had a certain dislike for the Jedi order, to a point where she wished she wasn't Force-sensitive. She was rude to the council, and her ideas about the Jedi code would influence the younglings at times. She was spontaneous, unpredictable, and acted more on her emotions than on better judgment—all of which were the opposite qualities of a good Jedi.

It was no wonder the Council hated her.

"You can't let your personal feelings get in the way of what Ri needs," Anakin said, trying to reason with Kiki.

"And since did you know what Ri needs? Since when did you do anything unless it was for yourself?" Kiki yelled.

"Please Kiki…" Queen Makoria said quietly. Kiki sighed.

"Besides," she said, considerably calmer now. "You can't take her until you get permission." She turned back to the map, effectively ending their conversation and cutting off anything else Anakin had to say.

Ri whimpered and squirmed, making Makoria put her down on the floor. She ran over to Marik and crawled into his lap.

"It's okay kid," he said to her quietly, rubbing her head. "You wanna build that tower now?" Marik didn't seem too shaken by the fact that Ri was Force-sensitive. He'd spent a lot of time with her since they landed on Verocia, he could have already known.

Ri looked up into Marik's always-smiling eyes. She relaxed and started building blocks around Marik's thigh. Although she was Force-sensitive and could sense the feelings of others and the near future, she did not see all of the pain and suffering that would come upon them in only a few days…


	8. The Last Victim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So sorry if Rex is OOC; I typed this a while ago and haven't had time to fix much.

"I really appreciate you helping me with all of these books, Rex," Kanari said, her accent making her unintentionally roll her Rs.

"I'm glad to help," Rex said, a slight tingle running under his skin. He moved the heavy stack of books he held in his arms to a low table. Rex had never seen so many printed books before; he had only ever read off of data pads. He picked up a book while trying to look nonchalant, flipping open the back cover.

"If you read it from that side, silly, you'll spoil a great ending!" Kanari said, placing a hand lightly on Rex's hand.

Rex didn't—couldn't—say anything. He'd never read a book before, he didn't know what side to start from, plus, it varied between planets. There wasn't even a title on any of the covers, just gold lettering along the spine. Rex's face caught fire at the thought of making a ridiculous mistake such as this in front of Kanari. Right then, he wished he had decided to keep his helmet on.

Kanari gently turned Rex's hands so he could start at the beginning of the book. Rex's blush deepened as Kanari's warm hands basically burned through his gloves and sent tiny pins and needled through his fingers. "Here, it's like this," she said softly.

"Thanks," Rex barely managed to mutter. He swallowed and looked at the words, barely even making sense of them. He didn't realize she had left his side until he suddenly felt a little cold. Rex stepped carefully around the stacks of books in the small room to replace the book on its shelf attached to the wall. While he was there, Rex examined the other books on the small shelf.

"Hey Rex," Kanari said. Rex turned around.

"Yes?" He watched as she deftly stepped around the piles of books o the floor.

"Can you put this up there for me? You're pretty tall, I bet you coul—" Her voice cut off as her foot caught on a small pile of books she missed and she lurched toward Rex.

"Kanari!" Rex exclaimed. Kanari's body hit him full force, and he fell back onto the wall behind him, making the bookshelf above his head rattle. "Are you okay?!" Rex looked down at Kanari. It was then that he noticed how close they were.

Kanari was leaning against Rex, her hands braced against his chest, with his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Don't worry, I think I'm fine," she said, smiling softly. Rex's face heated as he looked into Kanari's bright green eyes. His heart jumped into his throat, and he subconsciously moved closer to Kanari, bending his head slightly—she was almost as tall as him.

Kanari also moved forward, barely even breathing.

Rex's stomach was starting to get jitters in it, as if thousands of over-eager demolitions shinies were setting off bombs inside him. His eyes began closing, the image of Kanari's lips the last thing in his memory. The world starting drowning out around him.

The door slammed open, revealing a slightly surprised Kiki, her look changing from that, to confusion, to finally settle on a devilish smile playing on her lips. "Oh, I didn't know you were busy, Captain," she said teasingly.

"N-no General! I-I was j-just…I mean we were only," Rex struggled to come up with an answer. What _were_ they doing? Rex had no idea what was happening, only that he knew he had never experienced it before. A small voice in the back of mind hinted at what he and Kanari were going to do, but he shoved it down and ignored it.

Rex's face turned a strange shade of mottled dark red as he avoided the two women's eyes. Rex only meant to back up against the wall and put some distance between him and Kanari. When he placed his hands on her shoulders, he shoved too hard, and she fell back and tripped over another stack of books. Luckily she managed to catch herself on the arm of a chair, but her rear did hit the ground.

"Oh no! Kanari, I'm so sorry I—" Rex rushed to help Kanari up from the floor.

"Rex, knocking over women is not how you're supposed to get a girlfriend, you know," Anakin said from the doorway, standing beside Kiki.

"G-General Skywalker, I can assure you I wasn't—"

"It's okay, Rex," Anakin interrupted, waving a hand in the air. Rex was positive his face would be a permanent shade of bright red.

"Don't worry Rex. I'm fine," Kanari said, straightening out her knee-length skirt.

Anakin and Kiki's comms beeped. "Yet another meeting with the Council," Kiki said sourly. She moved to exit the doorway. "Bye you two," Kiki said, winking at Rex.

The only thing Rex could think to do was snap to attention. After the two Jedi left, Rex looked to Kanari. "So…do you want me to help you with these books still?" Rex asked, hoping against hope she wasn't angry with him.

"Sure, that would be great," Kanari said. To Rex, it seemed as if she had completely forgotten about their almost-something. Rex couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed about that, although he didn't know exactly why.

Rex picked up another stack of books and placed it in a small closet. He tried to ignore the pounding of his heart and the rushing in his ears. What they almost did kept replaying over and over in his mind. Rex's body began to feel warm at the memory, and his face flushed. He swallowed and wordlessly put the many books away.

Kanari looked up to Rex, a worried frown on her face. What was wrong with him? Why was he being so quiet? Kanari's eyes widened. _I hope I didn't offend him I any way!_ she thought, distraught. She wanted to ask him if he was okay, but she was afraid he would give her a concise answer and avoid eye contact, the way he normally did. _Is it because I'm only a servant?_ Kanari thought glumly. It couldn't be that, he seemed happy enough when she was around—unless he was faking it. A cold knot formed in Kanari's stomach.

* * *

Edger looked down at the datapad in his hands, scrubbing a gloved palm over his face tiredly. The door to his left opened, and little Ri walked in, holding a small tooka doll in her hands.

At first, he was surprised; she was barely up to his knee and the door had opened anyway. Then he remembered that she was Force-sensitive—she would be able to get almost anything she wanted. "Hey, kid," Edger said, not expecting her to climb up onto his lap. He groaned as she made herself as comfortable as possible on hard armor.

She swung her legs, kicking the undersides of his thigh. She looked up at him almost expectantly.

Edger didn't do anything but raise an eyebrow at her.

Ri went back to swinging her legs, bracing her small hands on his leg. Edger was about to tell her to quit it when she suddenly stopped and craned her neck to look at what was on the screen of the data-pad.

Edger brought it down a little so she could look at it. "Not much to see here. Just taking notes," he said to her.

Ri glanced up at him again, reaching with her forefinger to poke one of the dark circles under his eye.

"Ow!" Edger cried when she poked his eye. "What are you—" Edger was about to berate her for jabbing his eye, but her next statement made him pause.

"Bad dweam?" she asked. She gave Edger an almost pitying look.

"Yeah, just a bad dream, kid. No need to worry yourself about it," Edger said, astounded. He knew she was Force-sensitive. Marik wouldn't stop blabbing about it when they first touched down on Verocia and he spent a little time with her.

Ri hung her head for a moment, then leaned it against Edger's chest. Edger groaned and looked back at the datapad, the small words beginning to swim in his eyes.

Suddenly, Ri shot up, steadying herself on Edger's leg.

"What? What is it?" Edger asked, surprised at her sudden movement.

Ri put her head carefully to Edger's chest again, narrowing her eyes slightly. She smiled. "Ba-bum!" she said, pointing to Edger's chest plate. Edger understood what she was talking about.

"Yeah," he said softly. "That's my heart."

Ri giggled and put her head to Edger's chest, listening to his heartbeat again. "Ba-bum. Ba-bum," she said in time with it. A small smile lit up her entire face.

Edger couldn't help but smile as well. Gingerly, he pet Ri's head, trying not to ruffle her soft black hair too much. Ri stopped saying "ba-bum" long enough to look up at Edger.

She smiled brightly, her eyes crinkling around the corners. She laid her head against Edger's chest, this time keeping it there. Eventually, she fell asleep, listening to the steady thrum of Edger's heartbeat.

And eventually, Edger followed.

* * *

Bliz pulled the black undershirt over his head, trying not to disturb his sore shoulder. "I can't wait till we get off this rock," he muttered under his breath. He—along with everyone else—had not gotten a single night's worth of good sleep. And it was starting to affect his performance when he was on duty.

"Me neither. The kids aren't all that bad, though," Edger said, rubbing a scar on his shoulder absently. He'd taken a liking to Ri. She seemed to know when he was feeling upset over the most recent nightmare, and she comforted him in the way only a Force-sensitive two-year-old could. Plus, she didn't talk much.

Around the room, the others in various states of dress and undress muttered their own agreements.

"I keep seeing those monsters from three years back, during the Lizard War," Marik said, looking down at his shirt. Everybody froze.

"That's not possible," Rex said, trying to convince himself more than the others. They'd all seen it, though; the fleeting movement of something large and scaly.

Bliz was not the most modest person of the group, so when he heard a knock at the door, glad for the distraction, Bliz called out, "It's open!" Unfortunately, he was the only one on full armor.

"No don't—!" The others cried, but it was too late. The door opened and Ahsoka and Danda walked in, chattering happily. They had gotten a few steps before they realized that the men were not fully dressed.

"Oh my—I'm so sorry! I thought I heard someone say to—" Danda cut herself off as her eyes fell on Edger—or more specifically—the numerous scars that lined his chest, back, and shoulders. "Edger…what happened…"

Edger's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything. "They're just scars, Danda," he said stiffly, avoiding her eyes.

Danda's face paled slightly as she reached forward and gingerly traced a scar on his chest. The shortest ones were about as long as her little finger, while the longest would reach from the top of his shoulder to his navel. Each scar was long, pale, and slightly raised—something a knife or vibro blade would have done. "Were these from…the Lizard War?" she asked hesitantly. She ran her fingers along another scar as long as her hand. She gently, she rested her palm on his chest.

"…Some of them…" Edger said. His body went rigid at Danda's close examination of his scars. He closed his hand around Danda's, moving it away from his chest.

Danda seemed to snap out of it long enough to say, "Master wants us in the briefing room in a few minutes." She stepped back from Edger and walked through the door, Ahsoka following silently. Nobody spoke.

"Edger—" Bliz started.

"Next time," said Edger, cutting him off, "don't answer for the entire group." He lapsed into a stony, cold silence, discouraging Bliz from saying anything more. If it had been a different situation, with a different Commander in a different place, Edger would have gotten a berating.

Bliz knew better than to say anything, but he honestly did feel guilty about it. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again.

A few hours later, in the afternoon, Crusade Squad and Rex were off-duty, and since there wasn't anywhere they could go (Kanari hadn't started making lunch yet) they stayed in the barracks.

Ridge examined the tattoo on his left arm; thin bar on top, thorns a few inches below it. He still had to put something in the center, though.

"Something meaningful to you", Kiki had said.

 _Something meaningful_ , Ridge thought. At the moment, he didn't have anything meaningful enough to tattoo onto his skin. He looked up at Bliz. Bliz had his tattoo all filled out, they all did, they were matching except for what was in the center. The tattoos weren't required, but Ridge didn't want to seem like the pain of the group, so he got it.

Bliz had tattooed a small pair of hands on his skin. Ridge thought it would be a good idea to ask about what it meant. "Commander," he started quietly. "How come you have the pair of hands on your tattoo?"

Bliz had not been having the best of days that day. He was tired, cranky, and sick of seeing Kanari fawn over Rex all the time, so his answer came out a little dark. "It's for a kid—a little boy— who died during the Lizard War."

Ridge noticed how Rex stiffened slightly. "How'd he die? " he asked, curiosity overtaking his better judgment.

"Rex wouldn't answer some simple question, so they burned him," Bliz said, his tone low and dark.

"What do you mean, 'simple questions'?" Rex asked, turning around to face Bliz. His entire body was stiffer than new armor, and his eyes seemed to have a darker tone to them.

"Simple questions," said Bliz, not elaborating. "If you had answered those questions, the kid wouldn't be dead right now. Maybe he'd be alive with his mother."

Rex's jaw tightened even more than before. His voice was dangerously low. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means," Bliz said icily.

Something in Rex snapped, and he lashed out at Bliz, hitting his jaw squarely. Bliz tried to block most Rex's attacks, but he was too fast for him. Bliz fell back against the floor, Rex following.

"You know I would never have hurt the kid on purpose!" Rex said panting heavily, still hitting Bliz. "If I could have answered those questions, I would have!"

"You could have made something up!" Bliz yelled. "It's your fault that he's dead, Rex!"

Rex froze, breathing heavily. He aimed a punch at Bliz's jaw again, and this time, Bliz didn't try to block it. Rex narrowed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. Bliz saw the deep hurt that flicked over Rex's eyes, just under the surface. "I…I can't believe you would actually say something like that," Rex said, his pain almost evident in his voice. "That's a new low for you, Bliz." He got up off of him and stalked through the door.

Bliz wiped away the blood that had sprung up on his open lip. He could feel the glares of the rest of Crusade Squad on him, but he didn't care. Bliz got up off of the floor and walked through the doorway, taking a left instead of the right Rex had taken.

Marik moved to go after one of them, but Cord held him back. "Leave them, they need some time to themselves."

Ridge couldn't help but feel guilty for asking the question in the first place. He sighed. _Once again, I've found a grand way to prevent myself from making any real friends_ , he thought dismally.

* * *

Rex walked through the massive gardens, trying to calm his mind. He took a deep breath and took a left. What Bliz had said hurt him, although he tried not to let it get tom him. Why would he think he had purposely wanted the child to die with his mother? Rex sighed and turned another random corner. He stopped short at the sight before him.

Kanari was doing stretches in a pair of form fitting pants and tank top. She had her eyes closed and was humming a song softly to herself. She went to another position, her flexibility amazing Rex. Her voice was soft, but he could tell she was hitting every correct note. Rex felt transfixed for a moment, before he softly cleared his throat. Kanari paused and opened her eyes.

"Hello Rex," she said, smiling brightly. She looked as she wanted to take a step forward, then rethought it. Rex found it strange that she was being so reserved, but shook it off.

"I…didn't mean to disturb you," Rex said, making to move past her.

"No, it's okay. I was—" Kanari stopped speaking. Her eyes fell down to an area of Rex's face.

He was suddenly worried. "What is it Kanari?" he asked her.

She carefully walked forward, her bare feet making soft padding sounds on the stone path. "What happened to you?" Her hand reached out to touch a bruise blooming over his jaw. Rex flinched. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. I…I fell," Rex said. Kanari gave him a look that said she didn't believe him. "Well," he began, but stopped. How was he going to say this without bringing up too many sour memories? "Bliz was…blaming me for something I had no control over. He said it was my fault that a little boy died, even though I had no power to stop it—" Rex stopped when his voice suddenly felt thick. Kanari's image in front of him blurred for a moment, and his eyes stung.

"Rex…" Kanari said sadly.

"No, I'm fine." He moved away from Kanari, towards the bench by a bush. He didn't sit on it, though. He didn't want Kanari to see him like this, so weak and hurt like a wounded animal.

Kanari's hand wrapped slowly around Rex's, squeezing gently. "Rex, it's okay…"

"No, it's not okay!" Rex said, not meaning to raise his voice at her. Kanari winced and started to pull her hand away from Rex's. "I didn't kill the kid! I tried so hard to..." He saw the look on Kanari's face. "I'm sorry, Kanari. I…I didn't mean to speak to you like that." He gripped her hand before she could fully pull away.

"I know about the boy, Rex. Marik told me," she said quietly. Rex looked at her, an astounded expression on his face. "It was before today. Tell me what happened," she said in answer to his look.

"I…attacked Bliz because of what he said to me. That's how I got the bruise," Rex said after a moment. He bit his inner lip. Rex replayed the memory in his head. Rex had hit Bliz first, but Bliz only ever hit him back once, all of the other times Bliz tried to block his attacks. And then there was the last time Rex punched Bliz, he made no move to block it. He just took the punch and most of the punches before that. Rex was confused for a moment.

Kanari wrapped her arms around Rex's waist. She was almost as tall as him, her temple pressing against his cheekbone. Rex's body began to warm up, and his chest started swelling. "You can make it through this, Rex," she said comfortingly. "Don't let what happened at the Lizard War affect you."

Rex thought back to earlier in the morning, when he was helping Kanari put books away. He thought of their almost-something, and his face started heating again, along with his ears and neck. Hesitantly, he put his arms around her narrow waist, hugging her back, uncertain of what would happen next, or whether it was right.

They stood like that for a moment, holding each other. Rex let Kanari's warmth pervade his armor. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, letting her smell of fruits and flowers overtake him. He made the mistake of opening his eyes.

A streak of red ran down the side of a partly hidden path, the streak about as wide as him. With frozen limbs, he slowly let go of Kanari, not taking his eyes off of the offensive color on the clean light gray stone path way.

"Rex?" Kanari asked, following his line of sight. She paled when she saw what he was looking at. Kanari shot forward before Rex could anticipate her move.

"Kanari wait! It could be dangerous!" Rex yelled, racing after her. He found her kneeling down by a thin woman, lying in a pool of her own blood.

"H-help…me…please…" she said, cracking her eyes open. She stretched a bloody hand toward Rex. The dark shade of the trees didn't hide the long cuts and dark bruises on her face. "They're coming back…" she said, her voice raspy. She coughed, blood covering her chest.

"Lino, stay awake!" Kanari said, wiping some of the blood off of her face.

"K-Kanari? Is…is that you?" Lino smiled, her cracked lip spilling more blood. She coughed again.

"Lino! I'm right here, Lino," Kanari said, her voice cracking. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she blinked them back.

Rex knew there was nothing they could do to save her, she had already lost too much blood. "Can you tell me who did this to you?" Rex asked, kneeling beside Kanari.

"It…it was the…the monsters…they…" She coughed, spilling more blood onto her chest. "Message…" Her head fell to the side, her eyes staring blankly at nothing.

Kanari didn't say anything for a few minutes. "She said she left a message," she said, her voice completely lacking emotion. Rex had never seen anyone so concise before, let alone someone as bright and cheery as Kanari.

Rex carefully flipped over Lino's body, Kanari watching silently. Rex looked at the crude writing on her bare back, the amount of blood and dirt caked into the wounds making it almost impossible to read.

_We're back._

Kanari started hyperventilating. "No…no no no! This…this can't be happening! This can't be—!"

"Kanari!" Rex took her shoulders firmly. "Listen to me! We need to find out who did this. Do you know this woman's family?" Even as he said it, he knew who—what—killed the woman, but he didn't want to believe it.

"She was one of my best friends. I've known her since I was little," Kanari said, her breathing slowing down.

Rex slowly stood up, pulling Kanari with him. She wobbled on her feet for a moment, then stood rigidly in the center of the path. Rex examined her carefully. Her skin had paled considerably, and her clothes were covered in blood from Lino's body. His own armor had blood on it, but he would be able to wash it off later.

They went back to the palace, Kanari staying silent the entire time. "Are you sure you're okay?" Rex asked placing his hands gently on Kanari's shoulders. Kanari only nodded. She swallowed and rubbed her arms.

Rex took her arm and led her quickly through the halls to her room, stopping just in front of the door, careful to avoid people. "I'll…tell the general about what's happened," he said softly. Kanari nodded, but avoided Rex's eyes.

Rex then made a split-second decision. Kanari had always helped him when he was dealing with the nightmares since their first day on Verocia; the least he could do was return the favor. Rex pulled Kanari into a quick, tight hug, pressing his hands into the small of her back. Their cheeks pressed together, and Kanari gasped.

"Thank you, Rex," she said, her voice cracking slightly.

Rex pulled away and nodded curtly, turning to walk away. Kanari closed the door to her room.

* * *

Kiki leaned against the table they had placed against the wall. She pressed a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes for a moment.

"Are you okay General?" Bliz asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little nauseous, is all," she said, removing her hand from her forehead.

"We called you here because of…the deaths of the gardeners," Anakin said, crossing his arms and sitting against the table. "We have a clue of what could have caused them, but…" His voice trailed off.

"Was it something from the Lizard War, Master?" Danda asked, raising her hand slightly.

Everyone stiffened, but didn't answer her question.

"Master, what happened at the Lizard War?" Ahsoka asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Nothing Ahsoka, it was just a—" Anakin started, but Kiki's look silenced him.

A silent agreement seemed to pass between the Jedi masters and Crusade Squad. Kiki spoke.

" _We were supposed to land by our first rendezvous point…"_

* * *

"I really appreciate you helping me with all of these books, Rex," Kanari said, her accent making her unintentionally roll her Rs.

"I'm glad to help," Rex said, a slight tingle running under his skin. He moved the heavy stack of books he held in his arms to a low table. Rex had never seen so many printed books before; he had only ever read off of data pads. He picked up a book while trying to look nonchalant, flipping open the back cover.

"If you read it from that side, silly, you'll spoil a great ending!" Kanari said, placing a hand lightly on Rex's hand.

Rex didn't—couldn't—say anything. He'd never read a book before, he didn't know what side to start from, plus, it varied between planets. There wasn't even a title on any of the covers, just gold lettering along the spine. Rex's face caught fire at the thought of making a ridiculous mistake such as this in front of Kanari. Right then, he wished he had decided to keep his helmet on.

Kanari gently turned Rex's hands so he could start at the beginning of the book. Rex's blush deepened as Kanari's warm hands basically burned through his gloves and sent tiny pins and needled through his fingers. "Here, it's like this," she said softly.

"Thanks," Rex barely managed to mutter. He swallowed and looked at the words, barely even making sense of them. He didn't realize she had left his side until he suddenly felt a little cold. Rex stepped carefully around the stacks of books in the small room to replace the book on its shelf attached to the wall. While he was there, Rex examined the other books on the small shelf.

"Hey Rex," Kanari said. Rex turned around.

"Yes?" He watched as she deftly stepped around the piles of books o the floor.

"Can you put this up there for me? You're pretty tall, I bet you coul—" Her voice cut off as her foot caught on a small pile of books she missed and she lurched toward Rex.

"Kanari!" Rex exclaimed. Kanari's body hit him full force, and he fell back onto the wall behind him, making the bookshelf above his head rattle. "Are you okay?!" Rex looked down at Kanari. It was then that he noticed how close they were.

Kanari was leaning against Rex, her hands braced against his chest, with his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Don't worry, I think I'm fine," she said, smiling softly. Rex's face heated as he looked into Kanari's bright green eyes. His heart jumped into his throat, and he subconsciously moved closer to Kanari, bending his head slightly—she was almost as tall as him.

Kanari also moved forward, barely even breathing.

Rex's stomach was starting to get jitters in it, as if thousands of over-eager demolitions shinies were setting off bombs inside him. His eyes began closing, the image of Kanari's lips the last thing in his memory. The world starting drowning out around him.

The door slammed open, revealing a slightly surprised Kiki, her look changing from that, to confusion, to finally settle on a devilish smile playing on her lips. "Oh, I didn't know you were busy, Captain," she said teasingly.

"N-no General! I-I was j-just…I mean we were only," Rex struggled to come up with an answer. What _were_ they doing? Rex had no idea what was happening, only that he knew he had never experienced it before. A small voice in the back of mind hinted at what he and Kanari were going to do, but he shoved it down and ignored it.

Rex's face turned a strange shade of mottled dark red as he avoided the two women's eyes. Rex only meant to back up against the wall and put some distance between him and Kanari. When he placed his hands on her shoulders, he shoved too hard, and she fell back and tripped over another stack of books. Luckily she managed to catch herself on the arm of a chair, but her rear did hit the ground.

"Oh no! Kanari, I'm so sorry I—" Rex rushed to help Kanari up from the floor.

"Rex, knocking over women is not how you're supposed to get a girlfriend, you know," Anakin said from the doorway, standing beside Kiki.

"G-General Skywalker, I can assure you I wasn't—"

"It's okay, Rex," Anakin interrupted, waving a hand in the air. Rex was positive his face would be a permanent shade of bright red.

"Don't worry Rex. I'm fine," Kanari said, straightening out her knee-length skirt.

Anakin and Kiki's comms beeped. "Yet another meeting with the Council," Kiki said sourly. She moved to exit the doorway. "Bye you two," Kiki said, winking at Rex.

The only thing Rex could think to do was snap to attention. After the two Jedi left, Rex looked to Kanari. "So…do you want me to help you with these books still?" Rex asked, hoping against hope she wasn't angry with him.

"Sure, that would be great," Kanari said. To Rex, it seemed as if she had completely forgotten about their almost-something. Rex couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed about that, although he didn't know exactly why.

Rex picked up another stack of books and placed it in a small closet. He tried to ignore the pounding of his heart and the rushing in his ears. What they almost did kept replaying over and over in his mind. Rex's body began to feel warm at the memory, and his face flushed. He swallowed and wordlessly put the many books away.

Kanari looked up to Rex, a worried frown on her face. What was wrong with him? Why was he being so quiet? Kanari's eyes widened. _I hope I didn't offend him I any way!_ she thought, distraught. She wanted to ask him if he was okay, but she was afraid he would give her a concise answer and avoid eye contact, the way he normally did. _Is it because I'm only a servant?_ Kanari thought glumly. It couldn't be that, he seemed happy enough when she was around—unless he was faking it. A cold knot formed in Kanari's stomach.

* * *

Edger looked down at the datapad in his hands, scrubbing a gloved palm over his face tiredly. The door to his left opened, and little Ri walked in, holding a small tooka doll in her hands.

At first, he was surprised; she was barely up to his knee and the door had opened anyway. Then he remembered that she was Force-sensitive—she would be able to get almost anything she wanted. "Hey, kid," Edger said, not expecting her to climb up onto his lap. He groaned as she made herself as comfortable as possible on hard armor.

She swung her legs, kicking the undersides of his thigh. She looked up at him almost expectantly.

Edger didn't do anything but raise an eyebrow at her.

Ri went back to swinging her legs, bracing her small hands on his leg. Edger was about to tell her to quit it when she suddenly stopped and craned her neck to look at what was on the screen of the data-pad.

Edger brought it down a little so she could look at it. "Not much to see here. Just taking notes," he said to her.

Ri glanced up at him again, reaching with her forefinger to poke one of the dark circles under his eye.

"Ow!" Edger cried when she poked his eye. "What are you—" Edger was about to berate her for jabbing his eye, but her next statement made him pause.

"Bad dweam?" she asked. She gave Edger an almost pitying look.

"Yeah, just a bad dream, kid. No need to worry yourself about it," Edger said, astounded. He knew she was Force-sensitive. Marik wouldn't stop blabbing about it when they first touched down on Verocia and he spent a little time with her.

Ri hung her head for a moment, then leaned it against Edger's chest. Edger groaned and looked back at the datapad, the small words beginning to swim in his eyes.

Suddenly, Ri shot up, steadying herself on Edger's leg.

"What? What is it?" Edger asked, surprised at her sudden movement.

Ri put her head carefully to Edger's chest again, narrowing her eyes slightly. She smiled. "Ba-bum!" she said, pointing to Edger's chest plate. Edger understood what she was talking about.

"Yeah," he said softly. "That's my heart."

Ri giggled and put her head to Edger's chest, listening to his heartbeat again. "Ba-bum. Ba-bum," she said in time with it. A small smile lit up her entire face.

Edger couldn't help but smile as well. Gingerly, he pet Ri's head, trying not to ruffle her soft black hair too much. Ri stopped saying "ba-bum" long enough to look up at Edger.

She smiled brightly, her eyes crinkling around the corners. She laid her head against Edger's chest, this time keeping it there. Eventually, she fell asleep, listening to the steady thrum of Edger's heartbeat.

And eventually, Edger followed.

* * *

Bliz pulled the black undershirt over his head, trying not to disturb his sore shoulder. "I can't wait till we get off this rock," he muttered under his breath. He—along with everyone else—had not gotten a single night's worth of good sleep. And it was starting to affect his performance when he was on duty.

"Me neither. The kids aren't all that bad, though," Edger said, rubbing a scar on his shoulder absently. He'd taken a liking to Ri. She seemed to know when he was feeling upset over the most recent nightmare, and she comforted him in the way only a Force-sensitive two-year-old could. Plus, she didn't talk much.

Around the room, the others in various states of dress and undress muttered their own agreements.

"I keep seeing those monsters from three years back, during the Lizard War," Marik said, looking down at his shirt. Everybody froze.

"That's not possible," Rex said, trying to convince himself more than the others. They'd all seen it, though; the fleeting movement of something large and scaly.

Bliz was not the most modest person of the group, so when he heard a knock at the door, glad for the distraction, Bliz called out, "It's open!" Unfortunately, he was the only one on full armor.

"No don't—!" The others cried, but it was too late. The door opened and Ahsoka and Danda walked in, chattering happily. They had gotten a few steps before they realized that the men were not fully dressed.

"Oh my—I'm so sorry! I thought I heard someone say to—" Danda cut herself off as her eyes fell on Edger—or more specifically—the numerous scars that lined his chest, back, and shoulders. "Edger…what happened…"

Edger's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything. "They're just scars, Danda," he said stiffly, avoiding her eyes.

Danda's face paled slightly as she reached forward and gingerly traced a scar on his chest. The shortest ones were about as long as her little finger, while the longest would reach from the top of his shoulder to his navel. Each scar was long, pale, and slightly raised—something a knife or vibro blade would have done. "Were these from…the Lizard War?" she asked hesitantly. She ran her fingers along another scar as long as her hand. She gently, she rested her palm on his chest.

"…Some of them…" Edger said. His body went rigid at Danda's close examination of his scars. He closed his hand around Danda's, moving it away from his chest.

Danda seemed to snap out of it long enough to say, "Master wants us in the briefing room in a few minutes." She stepped back from Edger and walked through the door, Ahsoka following silently. Nobody spoke.

"Edger—" Bliz started.

"Next time," said Edger, cutting him off, "don't answer for the entire group." He lapsed into a stony, cold silence, discouraging Bliz from saying anything more. If it had been a different situation, with a different Commander in a different place, Edger would have gotten a berating.

Bliz knew better than to say anything, but he honestly did feel guilty about it. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again.

A few hours later, in the afternoon, Crusade Squad and Rex were off-duty, and since there wasn't anywhere they could go (Kanari hadn't started making lunch yet) they stayed in the barracks.

Ridge examined the tattoo on his left arm; thin bar on top, thorns a few inches below it. He still had to put something in the center, though.

"Something meaningful to you", Kiki had said.

 _Something meaningful_ , Ridge thought. At the moment, he didn't have anything meaningful enough to tattoo onto his skin. He looked up at Bliz. Bliz had his tattoo all filled out, they all did, they were matching except for what was in the center. The tattoos weren't required, but Ridge didn't want to seem like the pain of the group, so he got it.

Bliz had tattooed a small pair of hands on his skin. Ridge thought it would be a good idea to ask about what it meant. "Commander," he started quietly. "How come you have the pair of hands on your tattoo?"

Bliz had not been having the best of days that day. He was tired, cranky, and sick of seeing Kanari fawn over Rex all the time, so his answer came out a little dark. "It's for a kid—a little boy— who died during the Lizard War."

Ridge noticed how Rex stiffened slightly. "How'd he die? " he asked, curiosity overtaking his better judgment.

"Rex wouldn't answer some simple question, so they burned him," Bliz said, his tone low and dark.

"What do you mean, 'simple questions'?" Rex asked, turning around to face Bliz. His entire body was stiffer than new armor, and his eyes seemed to have a darker tone to them.

"Simple questions," said Bliz, not elaborating. "If you had answered those questions, the kid wouldn't be dead right now. Maybe he'd be alive with his mother."

Rex's jaw tightened even more than before. His voice was dangerously low. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means," Bliz said icily.

Something in Rex snapped, and he lashed out at Bliz, hitting his jaw squarely. Bliz tried to block most Rex's attacks, but he was too fast for him. Bliz fell back against the floor, Rex following.

"You know I would never have hurt the kid on purpose!" Rex said panting heavily, still hitting Bliz. "If I could have answered those questions, I would have!"

"You could have made something up!" Bliz yelled. "It's your fault that he's dead, Rex!"

Rex froze, breathing heavily. He aimed a punch at Bliz's jaw again, and this time, Bliz didn't try to block it. Rex narrowed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. Bliz saw the deep hurt that flicked over Rex's eyes, just under the surface. "I…I can't believe you would actually say something like that," Rex said, his pain almost evident in his voice. "That's a new low for you, Bliz." He got up off of him and stalked through the door.

Bliz wiped away the blood that had sprung up on his open lip. He could feel the glares of the rest of Crusade Squad on him, but he didn't care. Bliz got up off of the floor and walked through the doorway, taking a left instead of the right Rex had taken.

Marik moved to go after one of them, but Cord held him back. "Leave them, they need some time to themselves."

Ridge couldn't help but feel guilty for asking the question in the first place. He sighed. _Once again, I've found a grand way to prevent myself from making any real friends_ , he thought dismally.

* * *

Rex walked through the massive gardens, trying to calm his mind. He took a deep breath and took a left. What Bliz had said hurt him, although he tried not to let it get tom him. Why would he think he had purposely wanted the child to die with his mother? Rex sighed and turned another random corner. He stopped short at the sight before him.

Kanari was doing stretches in a pair of form fitting pants and tank top. She had her eyes closed and was humming a song softly to herself. She went to another position, her flexibility amazing Rex. Her voice was soft, but he could tell she was hitting every correct note. Rex felt transfixed for a moment, before he softly cleared his throat. Kanari paused and opened her eyes.

"Hello Rex," she said, smiling brightly. She looked as she wanted to take a step forward, then rethought it. Rex found it strange that she was being so reserved, but shook it off.

"I…didn't mean to disturb you," Rex said, making to move past her.

"No, it's okay. I was—" Kanari stopped speaking. Her eyes fell down to an area of Rex's face.

He was suddenly worried. "What is it Kanari?" he asked her.

She carefully walked forward, her bare feet making soft padding sounds on the stone path. "What happened to you?" Her hand reached out to touch a bruise blooming over his jaw. Rex flinched. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. I…I fell," Rex said. Kanari gave him a look that said she didn't believe him. "Well," he began, but stopped. How was he going to say this without bringing up too many sour memories? "Bliz was…blaming me for something I had no control over. He said it was my fault that a little boy died, even though I had no power to stop it—" Rex stopped when his voice suddenly felt thick. Kanari's image in front of him blurred for a moment, and his eyes stung.

"Rex…" Kanari said sadly.

"No, I'm fine." He moved away from Kanari, towards the bench by a bush. He didn't sit on it, though. He didn't want Kanari to see him like this, so weak and hurt like a wounded animal.

Kanari's hand wrapped slowly around Rex's, squeezing gently. "Rex, it's okay…"

"No, it's not okay!" Rex said, not meaning to raise his voice at her. Kanari winced and started to pull her hand away from Rex's. "I didn't kill the kid! I tried so hard to..." He saw the look on Kanari's face. "I'm sorry, Kanari. I…I didn't mean to speak to you like that." He gripped her hand before she could fully pull away.

"I know about the boy, Rex. Marik told me," she said quietly. Rex looked at her, an astounded expression on his face. "It was before today. Tell me what happened," she said in answer to his look.

"I…attacked Bliz because of what he said to me. That's how I got the bruise," Rex said after a moment. He bit his inner lip. Rex replayed the memory in his head. Rex had hit Bliz first, but Bliz only ever hit him back once, all of the other times Bliz tried to block his attacks. And then there was the last time Rex punched Bliz, he made no move to block it. He just took the punch and most of the punches before that. Rex was confused for a moment.

Kanari wrapped her arms around Rex's waist. She was almost as tall as him, her temple pressing against his cheekbone. Rex's body began to warm up, and his chest started swelling. "You can make it through this, Rex," she said comfortingly. "Don't let what happened at the Lizard War affect you."

Rex thought back to earlier in the morning, when he was helping Kanari put books away. He thought of their almost-something, and his face started heating again, along with his ears and neck. Hesitantly, he put his arms around her narrow waist, hugging her back, uncertain of what would happen next, or whether it was right.

They stood like that for a moment, holding each other. Rex let Kanari's warmth pervade his armor. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, letting her smell of fruits and flowers overtake him. He made the mistake of opening his eyes.

A streak of red ran down the side of a partly hidden path, the streak about as wide as him. With frozen limbs, he slowly let go of Kanari, not taking his eyes off of the offensive color on the clean light gray stone path way.

"Rex?" Kanari asked, following his line of sight. She paled when she saw what he was looking at. Kanari shot forward before Rex could anticipate her move.

"Kanari wait! It could be dangerous!" Rex yelled, racing after her. He found her kneeling down by a thin woman, lying in a pool of her own blood.

"H-help…me…please…" she said, cracking her eyes open. She stretched a bloody hand toward Rex. The dark shade of the trees didn't hide the long cuts and dark bruises on her face. "They're coming back…" she said, her voice raspy. She coughed, blood covering her chest.

"Lino, stay awake!" Kanari said, wiping some of the blood off of her face.

"K-Kanari? Is…is that you?" Lino smiled, her cracked lip spilling more blood. She coughed again.

"Lino! I'm right here, Lino," Kanari said, her voice cracking. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she blinked them back.

Rex knew there was nothing they could do to save her, she had already lost too much blood. "Can you tell me who did this to you?" Rex asked, kneeling beside Kanari.

"It…it was the…the monsters…they…" She coughed, spilling more blood onto her chest. "Message…" Her head fell to the side, her eyes staring blankly at nothing.

Kanari didn't say anything for a few minutes. "She said she left a message," she said, her voice completely lacking emotion. Rex had never seen anyone so concise before, let alone someone as bright and cheery as Kanari.

Rex carefully flipped over Lino's body, Kanari watching silently. Rex looked at the crude writing on her bare back, the amount of blood and dirt caked into the wounds making it almost impossible to read.

_We're back._

Kanari started hyperventilating. "No…no no no! This…this can't be happening! This can't be—!"

"Kanari!" Rex took her shoulders firmly. "Listen to me! We need to find out who did this. Do you know this woman's family?" Even as he said it, he knew who—what—killed the woman, but he didn't want to believe it.

"She was one of my best friends. I've known her since I was little," Kanari said, her breathing slowing down.

Rex slowly stood up, pulling Kanari with him. She wobbled on her feet for a moment, then stood rigidly in the center of the path. Rex examined her carefully. Her skin had paled considerably, and her clothes were covered in blood from Lino's body. His own armor had blood on it, but he would be able to wash it off later.

They went back to the palace, Kanari staying silent the entire time. "Are you sure you're okay?" Rex asked placing his hands gently on Kanari's shoulders. Kanari only nodded. She swallowed and rubbed her arms.

Rex took her arm and led her quickly through the halls to her room, stopping just in front of the door, careful to avoid people. "I'll…tell the general about what's happened," he said softly. Kanari nodded, but avoided Rex's eyes.

Rex then made a split-second decision. Kanari had always helped him when he was dealing with the nightmares since their first day on Verocia; the least he could do was return the favor. Rex pulled Kanari into a quick, tight hug, pressing his hands into the small of her back. Their cheeks pressed together, and Kanari gasped.

"Thank you, Rex," she said, her voice cracking slightly.

Rex pulled away and nodded curtly, turning to walk away. Kanari closed the door to her room.

* * *

Kiki leaned against the table they had placed against the wall. She pressed a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes for a moment.

"Are you okay General?" Bliz asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little nauseous, is all," she said, removing her hand from her forehead.

"We called you here because of…the deaths of the gardeners," Anakin said, crossing his arms and sitting against the table. "We have a clue of what could have caused them, but…" His voice trailed off.

"Was it something from the Lizard War, Master?" Danda asked, raising her hand slightly.

Everyone stiffened, but didn't answer her question.

"Master, what happened at the Lizard War?" Ahsoka asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Nothing Ahsoka, it was just a—" Anakin started, but Kiki's look silenced him.

A silent agreement seemed to pass between the Jedi masters and Crusade Squad. Kiki spoke.

" _We were supposed to land by our first rendezvous point…"_

* * *


	9. The Monsters Appear

Kiki looked out over the water and land under her. It was late afternoon, and the sun cast a nice yellowish glow on everything. She inhaled deeply, the cool wind whipping her hair around her head.

"Ah…" she breathed. "Home. Just like I remember it from when we were little!"

"Too bad we're fighting for it," Nirisa, Kiki's twin sister said.

"Thanks for the positive insight, Nirisa," Kiki deadpanned.

"You ready to go, Generals?" The pilot's voice sounded in their ear pieces. They were supposed to rendezvous in the middle of a thick jungle and coordinate their attack with the second half of their team. If there was a landing pad in the ocean, they would have landed there, but there wasn't one at the moment.

If the canopy of the forest weren't so thick, the LAAT/I's would have been able to land in a cleared zone, but there were no zones for landing.

They had to skydive.

"Competition time!" Kiki said, always the energetic one. "First one to the bottom wins!"

"Whoever catches the most bugs in their mouth loses," Anakin added. "You hear that, Rex?"

"C-copy that…sir!" Rex said around the insect in his mouth. "Ack!"

Anakin chuckled and looked over the ledge of the platform at the deep blue ocean before them. "I'm assuming we have to swim to shore?"

"Yep!" Nirisa said.

"You gonna be okay, Bliz?" Kiki asked, turning to her second-in-command.

"I'll be fine, General," Bliz said stiffly. He gripped the straps of his pack tightly in his hands. If there was one thing he did not like, it was falling.

"Don't worry Bliz, you'll be fine," Kiki said, giving him a comforting smile. Bliz only nodded stiffly.

"Three two one go!" Nirisa said, shooting off of the platform, performing multiple flips and jumps before finally disappearing from sight.

"Hey! No fair!" Kiki yelled, running and flipping off of the ship, Anakin close behind.

"Show offs…" Bliz muttered.

Kiki turned over to keep the wind out of her eyes as she fell. "You okay up there?" she asked the pilot.

"Sir, we have unidentified ships entering the area. We need all personnel to take off now! General there's—!"

Kiki watched in horror as a small, sleek ship ran past their transport. The entire ship blew up in smoke and flames, debris hitting the men falling beside her.

"Pilot! Pilot, are you alright?!" Kiki yelled. Her eyes went to Anakin and Nirisa, bit of whom were trying to catch their soldiers that had been knocked unconscious from the debris.

The small ship that had bombed the transport flew back around and started firing at them.

Kiki searched frantically for anyone who wasn't already dead.

"Anakin! Anakin, can you hear me?" Kiki activated her lightsabers and deflected the bolts that flew at the unconscious clones. She spotted Bliz falling, his head pointing straight down and cutting through the air like an arrow. "Bliz!" Kiki bounded off of the marred and twisted ship parts and moved as quickly as she could to Bliz.

The others were making short work of the twisted metal parts and lasers falling between them. Anakin bounced off of a hunk of debris and flew past a burned parachute case.

 _Wait, parachute?_ Anakin thought with alarm. He looked around him, seeing that the only clones with parachutes were being quickly targeted and shot down. He looked under him to see not only water coming up towards him at an alarming rate, but also flaming wreckage and flotsam, sharp edges like daggers shining in the late afternoon sun.

And they were headed straight for it.

Bounding of another hunk of scrap metal, Anakin pushed and unconscious trooper out of the way of bent, sparking wires and jagged hot metal.

Flaming hulls, metal, and even limbs raced by his vision. He concentrated on deflecting blaster bolts away from himself and the vulnerable. Somewhere out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kiki, also without a parachute, protecting as many men as she could while still holding Bliz in her arms.

Kiki tried to concentrate on the Force, but she couldn't—everything was happening to quickly. She could feel the fears and despair of her men as they fell and crashed head first into the water—however unconscious they were. Such was what her special Force ability allowed. The water was closing in on them—and fast. At the last second, she wrapped her arms around Bliz, ducking her head against the impact of the water. At first, she felt nothing, but then coldness of the ocean snapped her out of her momentary daze. Water began flooding her eyes, ears, and mouth. Her lungs were burning, and her vision was going hazy around the edges.

As quickly as she could she swam to the surface of the water, pulling an unconscious Bliz beside her. Kiki's head broke the surface, and she looked around for any sign of her men. A few were already on the beach, as was Anakin.

The small ship was directly overhead as parts of their transport crashed into the water beside them. A piece of metal caught Kiki's sleeve, dragging her under the water again. A sharp pain singed up and down her arm, almost knocking her unconscious.

"Nirisa!" Kiki yelled, just before the cold water swallowed her. She felt Bliz being pulled out of her arms, and she fought to hang onto him.

A hand clasped hers tightly, making her open her eyes, startled. Nirisa hooked her arms around Bliz's waist and pulled him up.

Kiki was about to move with her, but a sinking form from the corner of her eye caught her attention. Rex was drowning, sinking quickly through the deep water to the darkness below.

Kiki used the Force to propel herself toward him. She grabbed his arm and heaved him upward. Coughing, she broke the surface of the water.

She looked frantically at the water all around her. "Nirisa!" Kiki yelled, searching for her sister. A pillar of water crashed and exploded by her.

The bomber swung around again and fired at Kiki and Rex, dropping bombs and killing whatever men were still in the water. Kiki ducked back under the water and pulled Rex swum to shore, brining him with her.

"What is that thing?! We were never told that there could be enemies in this area. It was supposed to be secured!" Kiki rolled over onto her knees and coughed up the salt water that had filled her stomach.

"I don't know, Kiki. But whatever it was knew where exactly we were going to land," Nirisa said, scanning the horizon for their assailant.

"How many men do we have?" Kiki asked after a moment.

"Less than half," Anakin answered, scanning the pale yellow skies for the attack ship.

Kiki sighed. Slowly, she got up and walked to Bliz. "Are you okay?" she asked, placing a hand gently on his shoulder.

"I'm…I'm alright General. Just a bit shaken, is all," Bliz answered haltingly, rubbing a hand over his face.

Nirisa looked into the forest, ominously dark albeit the bright late afternoon sun. "We have to keep moving," she said, checking to see if her comm. was still working. "Waterlogged," she said, throwing it on the sandy beach.

Kiki flinched when she saw the state of her arm. Blood ran from a wound as long as her hand, almost a centimeter deep. She swore. "Great. Just another thing to slow us down." She ripped off the rest of her sleeve and wrapped it gingerly around the cut.

"General, you should let me look at that," Cord, the team medic, said.

 _Glad to know at least one man in my squad is still alive_ , Kiki thought with some happiness. "I think I'm fine. We can bandage it when we get to the rendezvous point." Kiki stood up with some effort and headed off into the jungle. "Come on!" she called behind her.

The rest of their squadron followed behind her. Nirisa looked back one last time to the sky and the sun that was beginning to set. She didn't see the attacker anywhere.

A few hours later, they came upon the rendezvous point/camp of the second half of the team. They were soaking wet from their fall in the ocean and the recent showers that happened to befall them after Marik said "what could possibly go wrong?".

"I can see the tents from here, come on!" Kiki called to the men behind her. She broke through the bushes only to stop dead in her tracks.

"Kiki, what happened?" Nirisa asked, running up beside her twin. The sight she saw made her feel nauseous.

The clones were laying on the ground, leaned up against boulders, and hung from trees, broken limbs and twisted necks all hanging loosely from their bodies.

Even thought she couldn't see it, Kiki could smell the blood that clung to the misty air. There were no laser marks on the soldiers' armor. They had all been brutally beaten, snapped and ripped apart until they died of blood loss or suffocation.

"We were too late," Anakin said quietly.

The entire second half of their team had been killed, along with the Jedi that had accompanied them.

"You think we don't already know that?" Kiki snapped. She was agitated, anyone could tell that much. The emotions of the clones were still lingering in the Force, and it often reflected in her behavior. Right now, she was just as upset as the men before they had died.

Anakin slowly walked to the dead Jedi in the middle of the spread of bodies, picking up her lightsaber. "I guess we should tell—" Anakin was cut off by a loud crash in the bushes, followed by a hiss. All three Jedi ignited their lightsabers.

The small clearing fell deathly silent, then one of their men screamed, having been tackled to the ground by a large animal—no, it wasn't an animal. It was a lizard.

These were the monsters they were trying to fight against.

The Kirzmin Lizards easily stood at seven to nine feet tall, with dark scaly skin and flashing teeth. Their long tails could be used as weapons, their teeth would grow to be as long as human fingers. They were violent by nature, and enjoyed to torture their victims to almost-death, rather than immediately kill them. They could easily crush bones between their teeth, and were considered a nuisance to the native Verocians and the moons.

The Kirzmin Lizards claimed that they had been on the planet first, and they were not afraid to tear down innocent people to get it back.

They were fighting to take the planet back.

Before Kiki could jump to the clone trooper's help, a loud snap came from his body, dwarfed in size to the Kirzmin Lizard. He screamed, his voice beginning to gurgle from the blood that pooled in his throat.

The Lizard twisted his head sharply to the side, quickly and effectively killing their trooper. Blood began to pool around his gaping neck wound, and he lay motionless of the leafy jungle floor.

Kiki Force-jumped to the Lizard, pushing her lightsaber directly through his head. The lizard hissed and writhed under the pressure, before finally falling silent.

Even more Kirzmin Lizards burst through the surrounding bushes, attacking the troops with their sharp teeth and long tails. All around her, Kiki could hear the snap and crunch of bones being twisted and ripped. The Kirzmin preferred to fight with pure brawn, favoring claws and talons over weapons.

The rising smell of blood, along with the constant stream of her men's screams, was beginning to wear down on Kiki senses. She could feel her grip on the Force slowly start to weaken. She struck down as many Lizards as she could, protecting the dying soldiers lying prone on the dead leaves and twigs that littered the jungle floor.

Anakin watched in horror as Rex's arm was caught in a Kirzmin Lizard's mouth. He'd seen what would happen when something like that occurred: the Kirzmin Lizard would sharply twist its head to the side and rip off whatever it had in its mouth from the rest of the body.

Rex yelled as the Lizard's teeth began to crack through his armor. He tried to fire his pistol at it, but it was pressed down by the Lizard's heavy tail.

Anakin launched his lightsaber at the Lizard's long torso. It hissed and fell back off of Rex. Anakin ran and finished the job, quickly pulling out his lightsaber to help Rex up.

"Are you okay?" Anakin asked, examining badly Rex bitten arm.

"I'm fine sir," Rex answered, firing at the next Lizard to attack them.

"Form a circle!" Nirisa yelled to the men. She deflected the blow from a Lizard, swiping up to cut off its arm, and pushing her lightsaber through its chest. "Don't let them get behind you!"

Kiki was having trouble deflecting the monsters away from her men. The Lizard's tough, leathery skin was mostly resistant to laser fire, and the most sensitive place for the clones to shoot were their eyes, which was nearly impossible. The mixed emotions of the dead and dying troops—fear, anger, agony, pain, and despair—were starting to fray on her senses. She was losing concentration, and she was losing men.

She sprinted to the next Kirzmin Lizard who had his jaw in a death grip around a trooper she couldn't identify. The clones arm was stretched out to her in a silent plea for help. Kiki could hear him begin to choke on the blood in his wind pipe.

Before Kiki could reach him, the Lizard sharply twisted his head. Kiki almost stopped at the loud snap that came from his neck, along with the scream that accompanied it. The Lizard reared his head upward in a sharp, arching move, pulling the clones head with it.

The loud ripping noises grated on Kiki's ears. A sharp pain flooded her chest, constricting her breathing. The raw agony and sorrow from the trooper completely fogged her senses. Kiki swayed on her feet for a fraction of a second, nausea rising up and burning her throat.

The Lizard smiled what could only be called a malicious smile and tossed the head aside.

Something in Kiki snapped, and before the Lizard could take a step forward, she had impaled its chest with her lightsaber. The Force was flowing through, strong and loud in her ears, but it felt strange. She had never encountered something like this. Her new-felt power rushed through her. Without thinking, she swiftly swiped her lightsaber upwards, pulling it through the Lizard's head.

She turned to the rest of the chaos behind her. The Force was telling her to do things that no normal Jedi would have done. She raised her arms and watched in amazement and fright as more than half of the Kirzmin Lizards rose into the air, rendering them helpless and powerless. As the clones began shooting them down, Kiki felt her hands begin to close into tight fists.

Nirisa and Anakin could only watch what happened next.

They knew that Kiki could draw her power from the emotions of others (if they were positive enough) through the Force. But there was no way she could have used pain, suffering, agony, and despair to her advantage. It should be breaking her, not making her stronger.

The sound of snapping necks and spines flooded Kiki's eardrums, but she didn't stop.

She ignited her lightsaber again, and went into full on attack mode, cutting and slicing down the Kirzmin. More were still coming through the bushes, but in less steady numbers now.

Her men fought as hard as they could, but it was clear that they were losing strength. They were seriously outnumbered and surrounded on all sides.

This new Force was completely different from what Kiki was used to feeling at the Temple. It was wilder, bigger— _more violent_. Kiki was moving with speed and power that she had never felt before, and she felt almost pleased that her enemies were falling before her—at her hand.

Nirisa and Anakin kept up as best they could with Kiki's pace, but while she was gaining energy, they were losing it. They could both sense what Kiki was feeling, and it didn't feel right inside them. It was darker than normal, more erratic and unpredictable. It felt _dark_.

Kiki struck down another Lizard with relative ease, starting to get used to the feel of the New Force. The more she used it, the more she enjoyed it, but the more it scared her. Ignoring the feeling of rising trouble, she struck down one of the last Kirzmin, using the New Force to choke and break the remaining few.

The entire clearing fell deathly silent.

Kiki fell back on the ground, bracing her hands on the dirt and leaves and half crossing her legs in front of her. She was panting heavily, trying to understand what exactly had just happened. Kiki placed a hand gingerly on her forehead, feeling how warm it was. Other than her slight headache, she felt just fine.

"Kiki! Are you alright?" Nirisa was instantly by her sister's side, kneeling in front of Kiki to face her properly.

"…Yeah, I guess. I…I think I'm okay," Kiki said, still panting lightly.

"What…was that?" Anakin asked carefully. He didn't know if any of the lingering Force was still inside her. She could be unpredictable, even without it. Anakin saw her mouth turn down slightly at his question, but she didn't verbally assault him.

"I don't know," Kiki answered a little tersely. She got up and looked around her.

Dead bodies littered the jungle floor, the clone armor stained with mud and dirt, and the Kirzmin Lizards with lightsaber burns in their bodies. During the firefight, the animals in the surrounding area had all fled, probably to escape the danger. Now the jungle was eerily silent, the only noise being that of water dripping off of leaves and branches swaying in the wind.

Anakin was the first to break the silence. "How many do we have left?" He scanned the area quietly.

"Some of your men are still here, along with Crusade Squad and a few of Kiki's. Mine are all gone," said Nirisa. She was right, while those in blue and black-and-silver armor stood, still on guard for a possible assault, none of Nirisa's black-and-gold clad men stood.

"I think we should contact the troops in the main city, tell them that we'll need reinforcements, and that the Lizards know of our attacks." Kiki stepped towards one of her injured men. "Are you okay? Will you be able to complete the mission?"

"I'm alright, sir," he answered, his voice a little strained. "What about your arm?" He motioned to the bandage Kiki had long forgotten about.

"Oh…" She pulled off the bandage to see that her wound had almost completely healed, the sign being a shallow cut. There was no scar to be seen from the parts that had healed.

"How is that possible?" Anakin asked, taking Kiki's arm in his hand. She almost pulled away.

Nirisa examined it with him. "Maybe it was during—"

Twigs snapped in the bushes, and what sounded like a curse was uttered.

All three Jedi ignited their lightsabers at once and jumped into the bushes.

The remaining Lizard fell back on his legs, dropping his cane. "Ahh! Please don't hurt me! I didn't want to come along in the first place! They dragged me here! I swear I won't do anything to harm you—" He went down on his knees and held up his hands in a sign of surrender.

"Unbelievable," Kiki muttered under her breath. What they thought would be another attack from the Kirzmin was just an old Lizard that had been left behind.

His scraggly beard had small leaves stuck in it, and his pale yellow eyes were obviously half-blind. He was less than half the size of the full grown Kirzmin Lizards, just reaching Kiki's bottom rib. His once dark green skin was now lighter, and the scales hung loosely to parts of his body. He looked under weight.

"Who are you?" Anakin spoke suddenly, pressing his lightsaber to the defenseless old Lizard.

"I'm one of those Lizards you were killing earlier. They didn't want me stinking up the cave back home, so they brought me along. I didn't think they would come to hurt your men or try to attack you—!"

The look Kiki gave him silenced the old Lizard immediately. "You are now our prisoner. You do what I tell you to without question, or you answer to the end of my lightsaber, understood? If I tell you to get lost, you get lost. If I tell you to fight, you fight, no questions asked."

"I don't like fighting much," the old man said, picking up his cane and finally balancing himself. "I never wanted to be anything like the Kirzmin are now."

Kiki was surprised, as were Anakin and Nirisa. They never thought that they could possibly meet a pacifistic Kirzmin Lizard, especially in the middle of war time. They were notorious for starting fights over the smallest of things, and they would attack each other for fun.

The Kirzmin Lizards were a very destructive people.

"Well, I don't suppose we'll get to the main city by standing here, now will we?" the old Lizard asked, hobbling forward through the brush.

Blasters and rifles were immediately locked and trained on the old Lizard.

"Oh my!" he exclaimed jumping back. "Are these your men?"

"Yes," Kiki said curtly. "Annoy me, and I'll order them to kill you immediately." She walked through the bush and headed back toward the center of the small clearing. Whatever lingering emotions in the Force were clearly evident in her behavior, and starting to fray on Kiki's nerves.

"Well, good afternoon. How do you do?" he greeted no one in particular.

The clones lowered their weapons slightly, stunned for a moment. A small twitch from the old man made them raise their weapons again.

Captain Rex and Commander Bliz stepped forward and aimed their DC-17 blasters directly at his head.

"Don't worry, he's with us now," Anakin said as he walked by them.

Rex started. "Sir, wouldn't it be wiser to execute him immediately? He is one of the Lizards, and they are the ones we're fighting against."

The old man stiffened—as best his arthritis would allow—at the word "execute". "Why would you execute me? I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Don't worry Captain. He's on our side now," Nirisa explained to him.

"Yes, I am officially a prisoner of war." The old Lizard smiled, his thin cracked lips stretching across shockingly white, sharp teeth. If it wasn't supposed to be a humorous smile, Rex didn't know what it would be.

Slowly, he put his blasters in their holsters, before following the Generals. Bliz followed.

"Come on men. We have to hurry to get to our rendezvous point!" Anakin yelled behind him.

"Yes, yes. At this pace, you'll never make it to the main capital. It will take you days!" the old man supplied, hobbling forward to catch up with the main group.

Nirisa's senses were put on high alert. "How do you know we're going to the main capital?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

Amazingly, he didn't flinch. "I did tell you that I was dragged here against my will by my family, right? I didn't just happen to be around when they were discussing plans with each other." The old Lizard looked down sorrowfully at a Kirzmin lying prone on the ground. "I always did tell my niece not to jump into everything her brothers did."

Kiki started as she looked down at the body. Yes, it did look female, with a slightly smaller build, and barely noticeable curves. It was one of the few wearing a top.

Kiki didn't know why she was feeling so…guilty. Yes, it was one of the Lizards she had killed during her force tirade, but she was defending her people—all of those that couldn't help themselves because of the war. She crossed her arms against the sudden chill that overtook her body, trying to rub the goose bumps away.

"Do you have a map, or something I could use to show you the route?" the old Lizard asked, holding out his hand.

Anakin begrudgingly pulled out the holo-map of their side of Verocia, turning it on and placing it on the ground. The old Lizard's eyes lit up.

"Ohh!" he exclaimed. "I've never seen one of these before!" He peered closer to the small blue images, scanning the lines of trees and mountains.

 _Just how old is this guy? Even Master Yoda can figure out how to work a holo-projector!_ Kiki thought with wonder.

"Ah! Here it is!" he said after a moment. "We'll take this path through the jungle and end up here. Quite simple actually." He nodded in self-satisfaction.

"Problem," Anakin pointed out immediately. "We were supposed to go _around_ the giant mountain there, not _through_ it." He pointed to the mountain that was in the direct path of the old Lizard's plans.

"I know, but we don't have time to go around it," he said simply. "Through is the only way."

"It's a _mountain_. How are we supposed to get through that thing?" Anakin was starting to get fed up with this old man's crazy ideas. He was starting to regret not killing him immediately.

"Ever heard of a tunnel, sonny?" The Lizard said not unkindly. "We'll go through the tunnels and cut our travel time in half."

"But that wasn't part of the—" Kiki tried, but she was unintentionally interrupted the old Lizard.

"Come on, now!" he called behind him, his voice croaking slightly. "Standing around won't get us to the main capital of Verocia!" He waved an arm to the North, hobbling to the front of the group.

Kiki groaned, but started after him. She didn't much like the idea of having to follow a Lizard around, but they had no other choice. They had less than a quarter of their original group left, they were running out of time, and not reaching the capital meant being overtaken by the Separatists.

"You're actually going to believe him?" Anakin hissed to Kiki.

"You didn't protest when I took him as prisoner," Kiki snapped back. "Now is not the time to speak up." Her tone left no room for argument.

Anakin wanted to protest, but kept his mouth shut.

That night, after heavy rainfall and slow trekking through the muddy jungle, Kiki sat on a wet log by the campfire they had built for the night. She was glad that her entire Crusade Squad had made it out the attacks, but that wasn't what was bothering her. Idly, Kiki rolled a small, dark green leaf between her fingers, watching it unfurl in her palm to its original shape, barely a crease noticeable. It was some cousin of the bacta plant, its name, though, she had forgotten long ago. Kiki sighed.

What she had done earlier—the way she manipulated the Force—was starting to scare her more and more. She couldn't understand how she had allowed it to basically control her actions the way it did. She knew that Anakin was watching her from across the bonfire, and she momentarily looked up to meet his blue gaze. There was something in his eyes she couldn't read, but it looked almost accusing.

The old Lizard—who they fondly called "Old Man"—hobbled to Kiki's side and sat on the wet log. He said, "It seems you have a lot on your mind. Care to share?"

Kiki looked up, startled that he had suddenly appeared by her side. The last time she had seen him, he was on the other side of the fire, sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, doing Force-knows what. The fact that he had approached her without her noticing unnerved her even more. "No," she said in answer to his question. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"It's about what you did with the Force earlier on, isn't?" he asked, seeing straight through her neutral mask.

"How did you—" Kiki started, shooting him a startled look.

Old Man chuckled, cutting of the end of Kiki's question. "I know more than you may think. I was watching from the bushes."

Kiki looked down at the crumpled, torn leaf in her lap. She swallowed not wanting to hear what would definitely come next. Old Man would probably say she was foolish for letting her emotions get the better of her judgment—how it wasn't like a good Jedi. He was going to tell her something about self-control, and the entire time, he would be giving her annoyed, angry, and disappointed looks.

Just like the Council.

"You have a great power inside you, do you know that?"

Kiki definitely was not expecting _that_.

"What?" Kiki asked, completely stunned. "Of course! I have the Force inside me, I—"

"Do you know what you are fully capable of?" Old Man interrupted her. He folded his hands over his knobby cane, sighing contentedly.

"Not much…" Kiki looked into the crackling fire, trying to gain what little heat it was giving off.

"Nobody really knows what they are fully capable of. Those that do find out, often wish they hadn't. Others never discover it," said Old Man, seeing straight through Kiki's lie.

"But that doesn't mean—"

"Your special Force ability makes it harder for you to do simple things, doesn't it?" Old Man asked Kiki, unintentionally cutting her off again.

Kiki sat silently, a blank look across her features. She didn't know what he was talking about—or pretended not to.

"Your ultra-sensitive telepathy is not as bad as you might think," Old Man told her, glancing sideways and tilting his head.

"Yes, it is," Kiki said, not intending to sound so harsh. "I can't focus my thoughts when everyone else's are jumping out at me!" She placed her head in her hands, bracing her elbows in her knees. Sometimes, she could tune the Force out, and the voices of everybody else, but the Council didn't like it when she did that. They said it was unsafe for a Jedi to tune out the living Force.

"It seems you think the Council will hate you no matter what you do?" Old Man asked her, not unkindly.

"I can feel everybody's emotions, whether I want to or not. It's a curse being born Force-sensitive," Kiki insisted. She felt more than saw both Anakin's and Nirisa's heads snap up, surprise coming off of them in the Force. Kiki sighed, and muttered something incoherent under her breath.

"You can use that power to help those you care about," Old Man tried again.

"Care about?" Kiki snorted. "'Attachment is against the Jedi Code, Kiki. You need to be careful' Yeah, in case you didn't know, feelings in general aren't very appreciated by the other Jedi," she said, quoting a Master whose name she had forgotten. "'There is no emotion, there is peace.' I can't feel any peace when all I feel is pain and suffering!" Kiki hands were tightly fisted in her lap, the knuckles a pale, ghostly white.

She looked up to see that she had awoken some of the men that were sleeping on the ground. The last thing she wanted was for them to feel tired when they began their trek early in the morning. She'd had to make it an order for them to get any rest.

Carefully, the old Lizard wrapped his gnarled, bony hands around Kiki's slender ones, gently unfisting her hands. Kiki knew that Anakin and Nirisa were watching them, intently listening in on their conversation.

"Your power is great; a blessing," he said softly. "You should use it for what you believe is right—protecting those that can't protect themselves. Is that not what they taught you at the Temple?"

Kiki felt her breath catch in her throat. "I…I guess you're right," she said quietly, looking at her unfurled hands.

"Good!" Old Man said, suddenly bright and perky.

Kiki jumped at his sudden outburst. She shook her head, smiling at his mood swing.

Old Man sat down in front of the fire again, resuming his cross-legged position.

"Old Man?" Kiki spoke after a moment.

"Mmm…Yes?" he said, his eyes remaining closed.

"Um…what exactly are you doing?"

"Breathing. Just…breathing." As if to emphasize his point, Old Man took a deep breath.

Kiki chuckled to herself. Old Man had begun to seem less crazy when he was talking with her, but now she wasn't as sure. Kiki lay down on the ground beside the log she had previously been sitting on, crossing her arms below her head.

She looked around at the clone troopers all lying on the ground, sleeping as restfully as they could. Kiki easily picked out the men in Crusade Squad among the bodies. She had to admit, Old Man was kind of right.

She looked over to Anakin, and they shared a glance before she fell asleep.


	10. Tunnels

Old Man had somehow managed to stay at the front of the group, even though he was the one with the cane. They were nearing the mountains, fog beginning to lift from the ground around them.

"You wouldn't happen to have anything I could eat, would you?" Old Man asked Edger.

Edger grumbled under his breath. He did not like the idea of trusting this old Lizard to lead them to the main capital. Edger tossed him half a ration bar, not really caring whether or not the old, half-blind Lizard caught it.

Surprisingly, Old Man caught it and quickly took a bite, just as quickly spitting it out on the ground. "Blech! You actually have to eat this? This can't be real food!" he said, handing the ration bar back to edger.

Edger didn't accept it, considering how it was already bitten and covered in saliva. "No thanks," he grumbled, ignoring Old Man's outstretched hand.

Suddenly, Old Man froze and sniffed the air. The rest of the group stopped along with him, their tracks pausing on the dry leaves below them.

"What? What's going on?" Kiki asked, reaching for her lightsaber. She scanned the area, not sensing any immediate danger.

Old Man's pupils narrowed to thin slits in his bright yellow eyes. Without warning, he dropped his cane and dashed off into the bushes, mush like the way a full-grown Lizard would dash to catch it's prey—on all fours.

Everyone completely froze. None of them expected Old Man to be able to move so quickly, especially considering he was always complaining about his arthritis.

Old Man's head popped up through the bushes a split second later, what appeared to be a large weasel in his mouth. In swift one move, he broke its neck and swallowed it whole, its tail disappearing down his throat.

"Well, I'm not hungry anymore!" he said cheerily, hobbling back through the bushes to retrieve his cane.

The entire group was still frozen as Old Man bent over to pick up his cane. The last thing they thought they would see was the Old Lizard moving as fast as lightning and attacking an animal in the bushes.

 _Note to self_ , Edger thought, still watching Old Man, _do_ not _piss off the old Lizard._

Kiki felt like she had underestimated their prisoner as she put her lightsaber back on her belt. She raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything.

The trek to the mountain was long, but they eventually made it sooner than they had anticipated. The entire time, Old Man seemed on edge, warily glancing left and right as he hobbled.

They soon arrived at the mountain entrance. The cavernous entrance loomed before them, the light not penetrating very far into the gaping chasm. "Well I guess we go in now," Nirisa said, taking a step toward the cave.

Old Man remained completely still, his eyes focused on something hidden within the bushes. His small body was completely taut, his eyes narrowed at the foliage just to their right.

"What's wrong?" Anakin said quietly.

A deep, low growl emitted from Old Man's throat, his snake-like tongue flicking out through his teeth.

Just as quickly as it happened, the moment passed. "We won't get anywhere just standing around, now will we?" he asked jovially, moving toward the tunnel entrance faster than Anakin thought possible—or necessary.

Old Man was hiding something from them, Anakin could sense it, but he didn't know what.

The group entered the tunnel, and immediately felt the temperature spike. "Whoa, it is _hot_ in here!" commented Marik, setting the temperature controls in his helmet to cool himself down.

"Don't worry," Old Man said. "That's just because of the lava flowing in rivers below our feet."

"Lava?" Ratchet asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Well, it is a volcano, after all," Old Man said, giving Marik a look over his shoulder.

"There is no lava," Kiki said, rolling her eyes. "We're reaching the center, and wind doesn't normally travel through here, that's why it's so warm."

Their group stopped when they suddenly reached a dead end. A wall of rubble blacked them in their path. "Uh-oh," Old Man muttered under his breath.

"Dead end," Anakin said. He immediately spun on the old Lizard. "This is a dead end! Where exactly are you trying to lead us, Old Man?" Anakin activated his lightsaber and held it up to Old Man's throat.

"You need to watch where you swing that thing, sonny. You could hurt somebody," Old Man said, masking his threat under a smile.

Anakin deactivated his lightsaber, but glared in Old Man's direction.

"I wouldn't mislead you. What kind of 'thank you' is that for not killing me?" said Old Man, the slightest hint of annoyance in his words. He hobbled forward, placing his hand on one of the large boulders that blocked the path. "We'll have to take a different way."

"What other way is there?" Nirisa asked, looking about the darkened cave.

"There is a small passage to your left. It is a little round about, but it will get us through the mountain." Old Man walked over to a narrower passageway, his cane making a _tap-tap_ noise that echoed through the room.

In order to follow him, the small group of clones and Jedi had to go through the passage single-file. "I don't like this at all," Ratchet said, already beginning to feel twitchy and fidgety.

"Easy Ratchet," Kiki said, looking over her shoulder to check on him. "Just stay calm. We'll be out of this soon."

Rex used his 360 camera to view Ratchet. He was confused; claustrophobia was a fear the Kaminoans made sure to take out of their DNA when they were cloning them. Why Ratchet was starting to get fidgety made no sense to Rex. He re-focused his camera, making a mental note to keep an eye on him.

Old Man exited through the other side of the small passage way, calling back to the rest of the group. "We've gotten much closer now," he said, once everyone had exited. "We just have to—" he cut himself off, a growl coming from his throat again—this one louder than before. His eyes were trained on the wall of rock surrounding them.

"Okay, what is going on?" Nirisa demanded. The sound of a rock falling rang through the room.

"Everyone through the next tunnel!" Old Man yelled, dropping to all fours again and moving swiftly to the next entrance.

Rocks crashed around the small group, breaking and smashing on the ground. While the Jedi were quickly and agilely jumping out of the way, the clones were having more trouble.

"Gah!" Edger yelled, narrowly avoiding a boulder. It seemed like the entire mountain was coming down on top of them.

A wall of rock piled up, separating one half of the group from the other. Everything was deathly silent as dust settled around one half of the group. "Is everyone all right?" Nirisa said, standing up and dusting herself off. She looked around to see if there were any injured men.

"We're fine, General," Marik said, helping up some of the others.

"Can you hear me?" Nirisa yelled through the wall of rock.

"Yes, no need to yell," Kiki said from the other side. She looked around her, counting how many clones she had with her. Not including Anakin and Old Man, there were seven. "How many men do you have?"

"I have six," Nirisa said, not liking the looks of things.

"We have to keep moving. They know we're here," Old Man said, hobbling to the wall and placing a bony hand upon it.

"What do you mean 'they'?" Anakin asked, walking up to Old Man.

"The rest of my clan has been following us through the tunnels. That was exactly why I suggested we go through the mountain instead of around it—"

"Wait, you _knew_ that we were being followed, but didn't say anything?" Kiki yelled. "I knew we should have killed you the moment we saw you!"

"Now, no need to jump to conclusions," Old Man said. "I never said that they were tailing us accurately through the tunnels. I took too many turns for them to follow."

"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Anakin demanded. "We have half our team on the other side of this wall, and we can barely complete the mission as it is!"

"We'll just have to make sure they don't keep trying to change the paths, and we'll be fine," said Old Man.

"Changing the paths?" Kiki gave Old Man a venomous glare.

"Of all the dead ends we've hit, none of them were natural. They were openings covered with piles of rock." Old Man seemed to be sensing something again; a growl was growing in his throat.

"We'll be fine General Skywalker!" Rex said from the other side of the rubble.

"Yeah, we'll head back the way we came and find another route!" Nirisa said, moving beside Rex.

Before Kiki or Anakin could say anything, they heard footsteps begin to walk away from the rock wall. "This is just great," Kiki muttered under her breath.

"Generals, I suggest we continue through the tunnels," Bliz said, pointing to a large opening to their left. "I'm sure the second group will find their way through, this is a relatively small mountain."

"You're right, Bliz," Kiki said, motioning to the second opening. "Let's go, men!"

A few hours later, Group A (consisting of Kiki, Anakin, Old Man, Bliz, Ratchet, Jax, and a few men from the 501st) moved through the winding paths of the mountain tunnels. The deeper they got into the mountain, the warmer the air turned, until Anakin had sweat stinging his eyes.

"I think we're almost out," Kiki said, wiping an arm across her brow.

The deeper in they got, the more Anakin was starting to sense in the Force. Something _was_ following them, and he only hoped that they would be able to make it out of the mountain before it caught up to them.

Meanwhile, Group B (consisting of Nirisa, Rex, Marik, Cord, and Edger) wove their way carefully through the dark tunnels. They had been keeping in contact with Group A ever since they split up, making sure that neither band got lost.

"Sir, I think something's following us," Marik said, not liking the chill that was rolling down his spine.

"What makes you think that?" One of the other troopers asked. Marik didn't fail to notice the almost cynical tone in his voice. His clumsiness tended to bring out that tone in others.

"I dunno…" he said, faltering slightly. "I just…feel it. There is definitely something following us, General." Marik paused to swivel around and aim his DC-15 blaster into the darkness behind them, the lights from his headlamps bouncing off of the various stalagmites and stalactites.

"I agree with Marik on that one," Edger said, walking up beside Marik.

The trooper who had questioned Marik turned around, shooting both Edger and Marik a condescending look. Just to prove his point, he scanned to black tunnels behind them. "There's nothing there," he said, his voice annoyed.

Nirisa felt exactly what Marik and Edger felt. They _were_ being followed. "Just stay alert, men," she said, continuing forward with a slightly hurrying pace.

"What was that?" Marik said, whipping around again. His heartbeat starting speeding up as adrenaline flooded his system. Something just felt _off_ , and it was a feeling that unnerved Marik.

"Probably just your imagination," the same clone said.

"Wait!" Nirisa stood stock still, holding up a fist to halt her men.

The noise that Marik had heard echoed through the dark tunnels; a low hissing noise bouncing off of the walls.

One of Nirisa's men yelled as he was pounced upon by a large, dark figure, his armor making dull thudding noises when he was slammed into the ground.

Nirisa activated her lightsaber as more Kirzmin Lizards flooded both ends of the tunnel they were in. She struck down the Lizard before it could cause any harm to the clone it was on top of.

Marik fired at almost anything that moved, trying hard to protect himself and his brothers around him. _I knew this would happen! I knew it!_ Marik thought angrily. _Why can't they ever take me seriously?!_ He fired until the approaching Lizard fell at his feet, smoke tainting the air in the dank passageway.

Kiki's wrist comm. beeped, halting her movements. "Kiki!" Nirisa's voice rang out over the crackly transmission. "Kiki, we're under attack! The Lizards have followed us through the tunnels. We're surrounded!"

"Nirisa! Where are you?! Can you here us?" Kiki spoke frantically into her wrist.

"Position—" Nirisa's voice suddenly cut off.

"Nirisa!" Kiki whirled on the men behind her. "We have to go—"

"Kiki, you know we can't," Anakin said promptly cutting her off. "We don't know where they are, and—"

"We have to try, Anakin! I'm not just going to—"

"Sir, we have bigger problems on our hands!" Bliz said, aiming down the dark tunnel way.

Kirzmin Lizards were racing towards them, hissing and snarling loudly. When the clones turned their head lamps, the Lizards faltered for a moment, not used to the sudden brightness that the lights provided.

The clones took this opportunity to start firing at the momentarily disabled Lizards. Kiki leaped into the path of a Lizard who was trying to down an occupied clone trooper. Her lightsaber hissed and burned through the Lizard, causing the acrid smell of smoke to begin clouding the air.

Nirisa counted the number of Lizards coming towards them while she struck them down. The number remained steady, but soon she could see that it started dropping. Her men were beginning to get tired, having fought non-stop for so long. Nirisa let the Force begin to flow through her, calling upon it for strength. In one move, she rose the Lizards up into the air, and forced them back against the wall, effectively knocking them unconscious. Nirisa paused, trying to catch her breath.

"Thanks General," Marik said, walking towards her.

"How many men do we have?" Nirisa asked, looked about herself.

"We haven't lost anybody, sir," Marik said, the relieved smile evident in his voice. He helped up a fallen trooper.

"Good," Nirisa said, genuinely relieved.

Kiki struck down the last Lizard, chest heaving and sweat stinging her eyes. She looked around her, scanning the tunnel ways. "Where's Old Man?" she demanded, her voice a little sharp.

"Right here!" he grunted, pushing a dead Kirzmin Lizard off of his tail. "Well, that was certainly unexpected," he said, his voice barely containing any humor. "We don't have much farther to the exit, I can feel the breeze." He sighed and closed his eyes, hands resting on his knobby cane.

"Kiki? Are you there, Kiki?" Nirisa's voice cut into their conversation.

"Nirisa! Are you alright? Where are you?" Kiki held her wrist up to her mouth.

"I'm fine, and we didn't lose any men, thank goodness," Nirisa said, relief flooding her voice. "We're almost out, how far are you?"

"We're on our way, the air is getting cooler," Anakin said.

Nirisa smiled, already continuing her trek with her men. "Good. Maybe we can finish this battle soon." Around a corner, she could see pale light coming through an opening. Just before she could take another step, the Force slammed into her with a warning, assaulting her mind with image after image. She could see nothing but darkness, but she could feel the pain of so many people, not all of whom were military. Screaming and cries of agony overtook her senses, constricting her breathing. The pain she was feeling was almost unbearable. The horrible images began to focus into one scene. Nirisa was being held by Kiki, chaos completely surrounding them. Men were dying, and the Lizards seemed to come in an endless flow, slaughtering anything in sight, but Kiki and Nirisa remained still, frozen in their own time. The images jumped forward to a different time. Kiki holding two lightsabers in her hand, and striking down the Lizards around her—but it wasn't in self-defense. Nirisa felt the pure anger, hatred, and darkness coming from Kiki through the Force, so much it was almost suffocating. Kiki would strike down any Lizard that was moving—whether it was armed or not, they would die.

She was letting her emotions control her actions.

Nirisa gasped and came back to reality, hands and knees braced on the ground. She struggled to catch her breath as the memory of the images swam in her head.

"General, are you alright?" Cord said, instantly by Nirisa's side. With his helmet, he checked Nirisa's vital signs.

"I'm…I'm alright, thank you, Cord," Nirisa answered, still trying to control her breathing. She shuddered, and stood shakily to her legs. The vision she had just seen meant something, but she was too disoriented to make anything out. Goosebumps arose on Nirisa's arms as she rounded the corner, the sense of foreboding still weighing on her senses.


	11. Enter the Warzone

Late afternoon sunlight stung Nirisa's eyes as she exited through the wide entrance. She looked to see where Kiki and he group had landed, which was only a few feet from her area.

"Glad to see you made it out. Are you alright?" Kiki asked stepping towards Nirisa.

"Yeah, we're all fine." The images from Nirisa's vision played over and over in her head. She wanted to tell Kiki, but Nirisa wasn't sure how she would react if Kiki knew what would happen in the future. The last thing Nirisa wanted was for Kiki to over-react.

"Are you sure?" Kiki asked, concern twisting her features. She always was good at reading Nirisa's emotions.

"Yeah, let's get going," said Nirisa. She hated the feeling she got about having to lie to Kiki, but it couldn't be helped. The Force was telling her that whatever was going to happen was inevitable, and spreading around the sense of impending doom was not going to help with their mission. Kiki still looked skeptical, but listened to her twin anyway.

The ground shook with the force of a blast from the main city of Verocia. Anakin could see smoke rising from multiple points on the horizon. "Come on, we have to move it!" Anakin dashed forward through the last line of trees and underbrush, the rest of the team following.

What they arrived to was complete mayhem.

Anakin hadn't expected the battle for Verocia to get so fierce this quickly. Parts of the 212th ,501st and 686th Battalion were scattered between buildings, trying to keep back the flood of Kirzmin Lizards while awaiting reinforcements. Their numbers were dwindling fast, and with one of their Jedi already dead from a blast*, their chances of winning were slim.

"Obi-wan!" Anakin called as he ignited his lightsaber and joined the fray. Kiki, Nirisa, and their men were close behind, striking down the droids that got into their path. "What's been going on, Master?"

"Anakin, you've finally made it!" Obi-wan said above the noise of grenades. "We've managed to push the Kirzmin back, but I don't know how long we'll be able to hold this position. We need reinforcements _now_."

"Grenade!" Rex shouted, rolling out of the way of the projectile. The nearby men cleared the immediate area, narrowly missing the blast. One of the houses beside Rex lit into flames, the roof crumbling inward. "They're targeting the civilian homes—" Rex cut himself off when he saw the woman leaning in the doorway, blood running down her temple.

"H-help me…plea—" She fell to the dusty ground, her screaming child writhing in her arms.

"Medic!" Rex yelled, moving to cover the still woman. "Someone get me a medic!" He knew that there were brothers who would probably need a medic more urgently, but Rex was not going to have a civilian death on his hands, no matter how inevitable it was. The child continued to scream and cry, its small body half pinned under its mother.

This battle was going to be costly, Rex realized it as soon as the Kirzmin Lizards began attacking the homes and running inside to take hostages. He fired as quickly as he could, but he knew that they were severely outnumbered, with the Republic clones fighting both the numerous battle droids and the agile Kirzmin Lizards. They couldn't call in air support because of the risk of collateral damage, and the grenade use for the clones was the bare minimum.

Still no medic arrived, and Rex took it upon himself to check the woman's vitals. Flicking his eyes to the body scans on his helmet, he aimed the scanner at the woman. But he already knew from the unnatural way she was laying still that it was too late. Her child continued to cry, smoke from the nearby burning home filling its lungs. "Medic!" Rex's voice was getting hoarse from all of the yelling he was doing. A soldier came over—a medic from the 212th.

"What's the problem, sir?" he said, fixing the straps on his shoulders.

"Get that child to a safe place—safer than here. The mother is dead, and I don't know how much longer the house is going to last. _Go!_ " Rex pointed to the prone body on the ground. The medic had a look flick across his face, Rex could tell from his body language. Flames were creeping up the woman's clothing, filling the air with even more smoke as the acrid smell of burning flesh took over Rex's helmet before the air filters kicked in.

In a few seconds, her entire body was on fire.

The medic wrenched the child free from its mother's arms, pulling it tight to his chest. Its crying had slowed to small hiccups as it looked at the flaming home. The medic ran farther back, behind the line of heavy guns and crates of charges. He opened the door to the first inhabited home he came upon to be met with the end of a crude blaster aimed at his forehead.

"What are you doing here?" the female behind the weapon asked, her accent lilting her words.

"I mean no harm ma'am, but…" the medic was at a loss for words as her looked sadly to the whimpering toddler in his arms.

Understanding flashed across the young woman's face as she looked at the little toddler. She pulled it free from the medic's arms and nodded to him, closing the door as she turned away.

"General, we need to clear the civilians away from here now! They are being targeted as hostages!" Bliz yelled over the din of exploding grenades.

"Commander, tell your men to surround the houses. Don't let any of the Kirzmin in!"Kiki ordered, striking down a super battle droid. There was absolutely no way to clear out the civilians—they would only be lead straight into the battle. The bloody battle had been going on for hours now, and the men were getting run down. The sun was well below the horizon, the only things keeping the field lit were the flashes of lasers, and the automatic streetlamps that came on. One of the lamps exploded by Kiki's head, a few further down following suit. The primary source of light for the battle was fading quickly, and in a few moments, it was complete darkness, save for the streaks of lasers and lightsabers, and the brief light from grenade explosions. Kiki sliced into a Lizard before it could attack a home. Almost immediately, the nearby men began moving closer to the houses, taking cover in the alley-ways and providing cover fire.

The next seven days could only be described as pure hell.

Just when it seemed as if the Jedi and clones couldn't hold out any longer, reinforcements came—unfortunately, they were not only for the Republic, but also for the droids and the Kirzmin Lizards.

"How much longer is this going to go on?" Kiki asked no one in particular. She was tired, she had received more injuries than she cared to count, and the prolonged exposure to the death of the clones around her was only making it harder and harder to bear.

"That depends on how many teenagers the Kirzmin plan on sending to fight in this battle!" Old Man said from the sidelines, helping a medic with a wounded clone. For the past few days, Kiki had almost completely forgotten that Old Man was even with them. He had proven to be useful when it came to helping with the injured, and although the clones didn't trust him at first, they quickly learned to accept his help.

Something rippled in the Force, and Obi-wan did not like the message he was receiving through it. One second too late, he realized what it meant. "Torpedoes! Everybody _get down_!"

Bliz had just finished helping patch up a civilian child he had pulled away from the danger of the battle outside. _Can't blame them for getting hurt_ , he thought. _This whole mess is literally right on their doorstep._ He ran outside to rejoin the fray just as Obi-wan called the word "torpedoes". Bliz looked up to see the torpedo shaped weapon speeding down to their sector. Everything around him was moving as though time was slowed down, and the only things he could hear were the thudding of his own heart, and the rushing blood in his ears. He knew that he was too close to possibly survive the force of the blast—they all were—but he wasn't sure how he would get the message out fast enough in order to save everyone. Bliz turned around, intending to make it back as far as possible before it landed, at the same time relaying the message over the HUD in his helmet. He caught a glimpse of the same little boy he had helped earlier peeking out through the doorway, the medic behind him rushing to pull him back. _He's too curious for his own good_ , Bliz thought, turning his head to see the torpedo come at an alarming speed to the ground. The world snapped back to regular time, sounds and sights flooding Bliz's senses as he pumped his legs to move faster. _I'm not gonna make it_ , an unnervingly calm voice said in Bliz head. He made the mistake of looking back to the Twi'lek boy in the doorway. _He's not gonna make it!_ Bliz thought, terror ripping through him. The Twi'lek boy's eyes widened in complete fear at the projectile. At the last second, Bliz tripped over a body.

The torpedo hit.

Bliz didn't even have any time to react. The initial force was enough to blast him farther down the street than he thought possible. The second blast was worse, pushing Bliz into the wall of one of the small homes on the side of the road. He heard something snap, and then break, and his body was slammed full force against the solid wall. _Damned wall_ , Bliz thought, groaning within his head. _Why couldn't you be softer?_ His vision began fading in and out, the pain in his body finally registering with his brain. Bliz moaned, then screamed as he felt the multiple broken and torn parts of his body continue to pull at each other. His armor was cracked in multiple areas, having taken the brunt of the impact. Despite the terrible pain in his head and neck, Bliz craned his head to see what was left of the battle. Something wet and warm ran down his head and into his eye, blurring what little vision he had left. The primary image he saw through his flickering HUD screen was that of bright orange and yellow engulfing the center of the capital. _Where… are…others?_ Bliz thought, his own words sounding sluggish to him. The chances that no one had not survived that blast were high, higher than Bliz would have liked. He scanned the remnants of what was left of the capital of Verocia, from the completely obliterated homes of the native Verocians, to the dead bodies of both the clones and the Kirzmin that littered the ground around him. Two pairs of rough, scaly hands grabbed his arms and legs, upsetting his already painful injuries. Bliz cried out in protest at the sudden movements, writhing to try and break free. Something hard knocked into his head, setting off a frenzy of pounding in his skull. _Ow ow ow ow!_ Bliz groaned, his thoughts turning to the rest of the team. _I hope they're having better luck than I am…_

Kiki had barely had any time to react when the torpedo hit. She saw Nirisa turn and run toward the heavy guns, carrying a limping clone with her. _No, don't go there, they could explode!_ Kiki thought in alarm. She reached a out a hand to try and stop her sister from taking another step. A loud booming noise sounded off behind her, knocking out her senses for a few terrifying seconds.

Then came the crash.

Kiki felt hot flames singe the clothing on her back, burning the skin under it. She saw one of heavy guns come flying at her, and by a pure stroke of luck, managed to turn his body and have her side absorb most of the impact. She felt ribs crack inside her as she slumped to the ground, her vision beginning to go black. _No no no!_ Kiki screamed within her head. She struggled to shift her head, the last image she saw being that of Nirisa's limp form on the ground.

Kiki fell into unconsciousness.


	12. Capture

Nirisa felt a crushing weight on top of her, plastoid biting into her skin as she rolled the unmoving form off of her back. She remembered his name—Riff—and felt a slight pang that she hadn't been able to save him in time before the torpedo hit. She rolled away from the body and re-ignited her lightsaber, ready to attack the oncoming Kirzmin Lizards flooding from seemingly mid-air. Nirisa's vision was swimming in front of her, and the constant ringing in her ears was making it impossible to concentrate. Out of the corner of her eye, Nirisa saw Kiki get grabbed by two tall, dark figures, and begin dragging her away through the alleys. "No!" she screamed, or thought she did, her own voice sounded muffled and watery in her head.

Marik opened his eyes slowly, blinking against the sudden light-headedness he was feeling. The screen of his HUD flashed wildly, only making him feel more nauseous. Marik strained his muscles to pull him into a sitting position. He groaned as every inch of him screamed in protest, but he finally managed to steady himself. _'Commander, this is Marik. Do you copy?'_ he said through a private transmission. His first response was static, and then and annoying beeping noise as the word 'FAILED' flashed in the screen on bright red. Marik groaned in both pain and aggravation as he tried again and again. _'Edger, this is Marik. Do you copy? Jax, are you there? Cord?'_

More static.

More fails.

Gingerly, Marik wrapped his sore hand around the DC-15 blaster by his side. He swore when he saw the charge. _This is nowhere near enough!_ Marik got the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to make it out of this battle alive when he saw two dark figures come toward him. Although he knew it was pointless, Marik looked for a place he could possibly drag his body for cover. There was nowhere to hide, all the houses having been reduced to smoking piles of rubble, bodies of dead civilians strewn between it. He barely even managed to raise the blaster to aim before it was kicked out of his hand, sending more pain and agony through his system. Marik screamed as his broken body was roughly picked up and hefted over bulking shoulders. Adrenaline began pumping through his system as Marik pounded on the Kirzmin Lizard's shoulders, only upsetting his injuries more.

All of the fight left him when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere.

Marik let his body hang limp, trying to ignore the pain that flared through his body. He looked up just in time to see another limp form get picked up and carried away before his vision blacked out.

Jax's head was pounding, and the ringing in his ears told him he'd been too close to the torpedo. He craned his neck and tried to focus his HUD on the flames in front of him. He couldn't see the rest of his squad, or any of the Generals. _Where are they?_ he wondered, moving to sit in a more upright position. He watched as Marik was picked up and carried away, along with Edger and Cord. _Not good_ , Jax thought, grabbing the half-melted DC on his lap.

"Look, there's another one…" said a low, slithery voice.

Fear gripped Jax's insides as two Kirzmin Lizards began to approach him. Raising his blaster, he fired off two shots, killing the first one. The second Lizard hissed and sprinted towards him, wrapping its long fingers around Jax's throat. "You're going to pay for that _clone_ …" it hissed. The Lizard's grip slowly began to tighten around Jax's throat, and he could feel bruises begin to form. Jax coughed and gasped as black and white stars formed in his vision.

"Stop! We need them alive Rem'vis!" a deep voice hissed. The Lizard known as Rem'vis growled, but nonetheless complied, dropping Jax onto the stony ground.

Jax coughed as air suddenly flooded his lungs. He grasped his blaster in his hand again, intending to put a smoking hole in the Kirzmin Lizards' faces, but a crushing foot on his hand stopped him. Jax cried out as the foot pressed harder, breaking the bones in his hand.

"I don't think so, _clone_ ," Rem'vis spat out in disgust. "You're going to be a tough one to crack. I'm definitely going to have fun with you…"

Cold, icy fear ripped at Jax's chest as he realized that he wouldn't make it out of this. "No, no, NO!" he screamed when the Lizard slung his body over his shoulder. "Put me down! Help—"

"Shut up!" Claws dug into Jax's throat again.

Jax watched in horror as he saw Kiki's limp form get dragged away through the alleys. Helplessly, he raised up a hand toward her, hoping against hope that some form of a miracle would happen, and that Kiki would end up okay. The thought that he could possibly lose Kiki was overwhelming, and that thought fueled him to try even harder.

In the position that he was, his abdomen being around the large Lizard's neck, he was able to knee the Lizard in the face. He fell to the ground, rough rocks and sharp debris pressing into his gloved hands. Jax scrambled to his feet, half running, half limping to Kiki's and the Kirzmin carrying her.

"Get back here, you little runt!" Rem'vis yelled, sharply pulling back Jax's arm.

Jax felt—and heard—a loud pop come from his shoulder. "Gah!" he reached back to hold his shoulder with his left hand.

"You're not escaping from us that easily," Rem'vis hissed in front of Jax's face.

Jax's heart began beating wildly as he was set again on the Kirzmin Lizard's shoulders. 'We gotta make sure he doesn't try anything again," said a second slithery voice. Almost immediately, a small, sharp pain flared up in Jax's neck. What felt like fire spread through Jax's entire body, and he moaned at the pain. His head began throbbing again, and multi-colored stars were swimming across his field of vision. Right before he felt he would throw up, the world went black.

When Kiki finally woke up, the first thing she realized was that she couldn't see anything. "Wha…what happened?" Kiki's head began throbbing, and she twisted her body, trying get a better view of her surroundings. Something above her jangled and pulled at her wrists. Kiki looked up and could barely make out a set of cuffs on her wrists, attached to chains that led to something—like a lock—above her.

"General Jorani? Are you awake?" said a voice from her right.

As much as it pained her, Kiki craned her neck to get a better glimpse of the owner of the voice. She could just make out the silhouette of off-white leg armor, with black stripes running down the sides. "Jax? Is that you?" Kiki croaked.

"You're alright…" Jax said, relief flooding his tone. Kiki sensed more than heard the joy in him. "We've been captured. I don't know where we are, but I'm pretty sure we're underground somewhere. They knocked me out before I could see anything." Jax sounded guilty, although there was no way he would have been able to prevent what had happened to them.

"What about the others?" Kiki asked, looking to her direct left and right.

"The entire Crusade Squad is here. Cord is to your right. I should be right next to him. And then next to me is your sister. I'm not sure who's on your left, though." Kiki heard chains jangle, as if someone were trying to turn toward her. "You've been out for a few hours, a day at the most. They took the upper half of our armor, so the chances of a tracking beacon being sent out are slim." The chains settled.

Kiki sighed. The odds were grim.

She looked to her left, barely making out royal blue and white. "Rex? Rex?" she whispered, afraid that there might be guards outside the door—wherever it was. "Are you alright?"

"Mmm? General Jorani?" Rex lifted his head up, flinching at the movement. "Where are we?"

Kiki immediately regretted waking him up. She could hear the pain in his voice. "We've been captured, and we might be underground. They took your armor."

"Yeah…noticed that…" Rex mumbled, falling back into unconsciousness.

"No, Rex! Don't go back to sleep!" Kiki whispered loudly. She didn't know how much blood had been lost between them all, but it was enough for her to be able to pick out the smell from the others. She could see the blood that was running down his cuisse, and it looked like too much to have stopped by now. If he fell asleep, he could go into shock, or bleed out.

"Mrm? What happened? Where are we?" Rex peeked an eye open.

He already asked that.

 _Great, concussion_ , Kiki thought. She looked to her immediate right, where Cord was sitting , his hands also chained up above him. He didn't look to be bleeding, which was good, but his pallor was a sickly ashen white. Sweat beaded in his hairline. Kiki's worry sky-rocketed. She couldn't sense Anakin or Obi-wan anywhere, although the signal from her sister was weak. Kiki carefully leaned her head back against the rough rock wall. "Jax," Kiki whispered into the dark.

"Yes, General?" was the immediate answer.

Before Kiki could get out her answer, something in the cavernous room creaked. A large metal door directly across from her swung inward, casting the general area in a dim yellow light. "I thought I heard chatter in here. Looks like the _slugs_ are finally awake," hissed a low voice.

Kiki looked up into the yellow glowing eyes of the owner of the voice. She glared, showing off more fight than she had in her.

The Lizard chuckled, a low growling noise coming from the back of his throat. "Well well well…This should be fun…" He took a step forward.

The crack of a whip echoed through the space, and yellow electricity buzzed and jumped along the long metal rope.


	13. Brokenn

Each day, the Kirzmin Lizards took someone new for "special interrogations", and each day, they would come back bloodied, beaten, and scarred beyond physical appearance.

When Edger came back, he could barely speak and had small dots of blood on his black undersuit. Needles.

Marik came back shaking uncontrollably, bruises lining his face and neck. Dried blood made his undersuit stick to his wounds.

Each person not only went through physical tortures, but psychological pain as well.

The fact that their armor and helmets were so close—in the same room, gathered in a corner—but they had no way of reaching it, made the team's hope of survival shrink smaller and smaller to almost non-existence.

Ratchet was tortured so horribly he was almost pushed to a point of mental vacancy. He was completely unable to speak, only muttering to himself and recoiling whenever someone came too close.

Even when they escaped, they were always dragged back to the same cell, with the bloody floor and rusty metal bracings.

They'd tried twice.

They'd failed twice.

And they suffered the consequences.

Slowly, the Lizards made their way down the line as they chose their new victim, sometimes taking them in groups of three.

On Day Seven, the Lizard stopped in front of Nirisa. "I think I'll take her…she's definitely going to be a lot of…fun…" the Lizard hissed, reaching for Nirisa's lock.

"No! Leave her alone! Don't touch her!" Kiki yelled, trying in vain to help her twin.

Nirisa struggled against the Lizard's iron grip, even going so far as to try and use the Force on him. In response, the Lizard kicked a heavy, clawed foot into Nirisa's side, effectively stilling her movements. "Sit still, and I might not make this too painful," he hissed, dragging her through the doorway.

"Give her back you son of a—" Kiki had every intention to break the shackles and rip out the Kirzmins' throats. She barely managed to leap into a low crouching position, her arms pulling painfully behind her, before a sharp metal pole was jabbed into her stomach, sending a frenzy of electricity through her nervous system. "AAARGH!" Kiki slumped dejectedly against the cold bloody stone behind her, her racing heart sending too much blood to her head. The last image she remembered of Nirisa before she was taken was the look of raw terror in her once bright green eyes, her bloody hand outstretched toward Kiki for help.

That image would never be erased from Kiki's mind.

"Shut up you!" the Lizard yelled, jabbing Kiki's shackles with the electro staff again, and subsequently electrifying everyone else.

Cord struggled to control his breathing, multiple ribs having been cracked and broken during his "special interrogation". The humidity in the sweltering room wasn't helping with his struggle.

"Aw, too hot for ya?" the Lizard hissed, feigning sympathy for Cord.

Cord leveled a steady glare at the Lizard, managing to mask his pain. He didn't say anything.

"Shi'lim," the Lizard said, bringing a comm. up to his mouth, "bring in the hose, it seems our prisoners are getting a little…uncomfortable."

The rusty metal door creaked open, spreading the now familiar dim yellow light over the prisoners.

"Brought it," the Lizard said, sounding surprisingly young compared to the others.

 _Of course_ , Kiki thought, watching the two work warily. _They train their monsters at a young age._

The first Lizard aimed the hose at the dirty rock floor, letting water drip and pool just before his feet. "Let me show you what happens when you don't do as you're told," he said, his accent drawing out some of the words. The hose began gushing out more water, spraying the prisoners in cold, salty wetness.

Kiki didn't care. It was the cleanest water they'd had to drink in the dungeon.

The salt in the cold liquid began stinging the wounds on Kiki's chest and abdomen, and he clothing was now thoroughly soaked. She looked to her left, where Jax remained, and saw that he was going through the same thing, along with everyone else.

"And now for the _real_ punishment." Taking the electro staff in hand, he activated the end, purple electricity crackling dangerously in the air.

In that same second, Kiki realized what it was meant for.

The staff stabbed into the ground, and the electricity raced along the path of salt water from the floor to the prisoners.

The pain that Rex was feeling was even worse than he could have imagined, the salty water having magnified the intensity of the shock. He could feel his body begin to shake uncontrollably as bright lights swam in front of his eyes. Rex couldn't tell if he was screaming, or whether the blood curdling noise was only in his head.

The only thing he wanted was for the pain to stop.

Without warning, the flash of electricity stopped, and all Rex was left with was a throbbing headache.

The Lizard exited through the door and closed it, leaving his prisoners in complete dark once again.

All Kiki could hear was the ragged breathing of not only herself, but the rest of the clones by her side. She laid her head back against the cold wet stone, willing her heart rate to stop thudding so furiously.

The metal door creaked open again, and the limp body of Nirisa was thrown on the ground before them. She was still alive, although her breaths came in uneven puffs, as if she were about to begin hyperventilating.

"Nirisa…Nirisa!" Kiki said, straining against the chains keeping her to the walls.

"What did you do to her—AAAH!" Kiki was instantly silenced, the first Lizard having gotten tired of her constant yelling.

The Lizard initially ignored her, roughly dragging Nirisa by the wrists to her chains on the wall. Nirisa didn't answer, but she flinched whenever the Lizard came near. "I must say, that was fun," he hissed, chuckling at Nirisa's reaction.

Cold dread clamped on Kiki's gut, only fueling her rage further. She lunged for the Lizard in front of Nirisa, standing to her full height—albeit slightly bent. "You bastards! You'll pay for what you—AARGH!" Another shot of electricity cut Kiki off mid-sentence. She fell back against the wall of the dungeon.

"Keep talking, and we'll do the same thing that we did to her, understand?" the Lizard hissed, coming dangerously close to Kiki.

Kiki couldn't hide the fear on her face as she saw the evil intent in the Lizard's eyes.

He spun and walked back through the door, almost whipping Kiki in the face with his tail. Kiki flinched and pressed back against the wall, watching Nirisa for any signs of movement other than the curled up position she had taken.

Nirisa's tunic and pants were torn, and covered in more blood than before she had been taken. Despite her completely still position was only compromised by the slight shaking, and her usually bright green eyes were dull, hollow, and filled with terror.

"Nirisa…" Kiki said dejectedly, her name coming out barely above a whisper.

Nirisa flinched, but didn't otherwise acknowledge her, as even hearing anything hurt.

Even though Kiki knew it was completely un-Jedi like, she could help the desolation she was feeling.

That day, Kiki would never be the same again.

She lost hope.

**Day 8**

"Up, you slugs have a visitor!" the Lizard hissed, kicking them awake.

When Kiki awoke, she thought that she must have been dreaming.

Old Man knelt before them, bruised with an eye almost completely swollen shut, but smiling nonetheless. "Hello, Kiki. Rex," he said, nodding to them in turn. "Where's Anakin?"

"Old Man! You're alive!" Kiki exclaimed, hardly paying attention to what he had said earlier. "We don't know where Anakin is…" She cast a dirty look in the direction of the Kirzmin guard behind Old Man. He growled in return, but otherwise didn't move.

"Oh, that's a shame…" Old Man said, sounding genuinely upset. "But, don't worry, help will be here—"

"Shut it, you old man!" the guard said, poking him in the back with him electro staff. Old Man crumpled to the dirty ground, temporarily overtaken by the spasms of electrocution.

"No! Stop!" Kiki instantly yelled, lurching forward on her chains again.

Old Man lay still for a moment, then steadily got back on his knees. "That feels worse than I remember…" he muttered under his breath.

"Why haven't they killed you yet?" Cord said, speaking for the first time since their arrival at the underground torture room. His voice cracked in the middle of his sentence.

"That's exactly what I'm wondering…" the guard muttered under his breath.

"I know too much for them to kill me," Old Man said, smirking while he tapped his temple.

"Okay time's up!" the guard immediately said, yanking Old Man backwards.

"I'll see you kids later!" he called, before the door slammed shut.

Despite the fact that they had no chances of making it out alive, Kiki couldn't help but smile at Old Man's almost ridiculous enthusiasm.

**Day 9**

Rex felt the cold stone help with his slight headache, but other than that, his entire body was screaming in agony. He tried to breathe around the aching in his chest, but that was almost impossible.

The metal door creaked open, and almost instinctively, Rex flinched back, waiting for the pain that he knew was inevitable.

"Wake up, the lot of you!" The Lizard said, shocking them all to consciousness.

Rex was suddenly alert, albeit scared, as he watched the Lizard make his way towards them.

"Get up, we're taking you to the Smoke House," the Lizards said, seemingly pleased with the idea.

Rex doubted the Smoke House was somewhere they held roasted nerf steaks. He knew better than to try and fight back, they were bigger and stronger, and had all of the torture devices, while Rex was severely underweight and barely able to stand on his own. Rex was harshly dragged upward, the sudden movement pulling the cuts he had in his sides and shifting the bones that were broken. Rex groaned in protest, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. His dirty boots dragged against the dirt floor of the dim hallway. Rex had only ever seen it twice, when they'd tried to escape and find Anakin. He heard another door open, and then close—it was wooden. They entered a small room, with what looked to be glass facing another area. Chairs were already set up in a curved pattern, all facing the window.

Rex could feel a sort of stone drop into the bottom of his stomach. He was getting the feeling this form of torture would be worse than the others. He was forced into the wooden chair directly facing the window, Bliz on his left and Kiki on his right. It was odd, sitting in a chair after so many days of kneeling. The feeling in Rex's hands was coming back painfully, and he tried to rub them together before a Kirzmin guard yanked his hands back behind him, keeping Rec rooted and tied to the chair. To his right, Rex heard Kiki grunt in the effort to find a more comfortable position.

"You don't seem to like talking. Funny, I heard somewhere that humans could get…chatty," A Kirzmin Lizard said, walking slowly in front of the group of prisoners.

Nobody spoke.

"You're the Captain, am I right?" he said, flaunting the electro whip.

Rex stared the monster dead in the eye, but didn't open his mouth.

"Answer me," the Lizard hissed angrily, unleashing the whip across Ratchet, Jax, and Kiki, "Or your friends will pay the price."

"Yes, I am the Captain," Rex immediately answered, his voice sounding hoarser than he would have liked.

"Good," the Lizard said, apparently satisfied with this information. "Then these questions should be easy for you to answer."

"I don't speak to scum like you," Rex growled, adrenaline making his voice clearer. He could have easily said that Bliz was Commander, higher ranking than Rex, but Rex kept the thought to himself.

"Oh really?" the Lizard asked, suddenly interested.

Rex remained silent.

Suddenly, Rex found a scaly hand clamping down on his jaw, long fingernails digging into the skin. "Tell me where you currently have your troops stationed, and I _might_ let you live. Or, you could tell us the passcodes to the Republic database. Your choice."

Rex still kept his silence, instead choosing to glare at the Lizard dead in the eye.

The Lizard growled in annoyance in the back of his throat, much like the way Old Man did when he was annoyed—which was rare.

"Rex, don't say anything—" Kiki began, but was silenced when a clawed hand clamped around her throat.

"Remember that little promise I made you," the Lizard that brought them to the room said. "And don't forget it."

"If that's how it's going to be then…" the Lizard said, his voice dangerously low. "Bring in the solids and that copy."

Kiki and Nirisa knew enough about their home planet to know that "solid" meant anyone of a single species, since Verocians were generally a mixed species that got a name.

They had civilians.

Kiki felt cold fear run through her as three figures entered the room walled off by the glass, bound, gagged, and blind-folded.

"This is what you get for not doing as I told you, _clone_ ," the Lizard hissed.

The blinds, gags, and binds were taken off of the prisoner in the separate room. A Twi'lek woman held a small boy in her arms, and a clone trooper sat next to them, protectively. His eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the clones and Jedi.

"Turn it on!" the Lizard yelled above the noise the clone was making.

Six circles on the back wall that Rex hadn't noticed before began to glow an unnerving orange-yellow.

A fraction too late, he realized what they were for.

"No don't! I'll tell you what you want to know! Just please don't—"

"It's too late for that now," the Lizard hissed, his voice unremorseful.

Rex could see heat waves begin forming in the air, making Rex's stomach curl in fear.

The small Twi'lek boy crawled into his mother's lap, tears streaming down his face. The clone moved closer to the two of them, trying to shield the pair with his body.

Rex tried to lunge out of his seat, but he was roughly shoved back down when he moved. For one frozen second, he made eye contact with the woman, the clone, and the small boy.

The clone nodded, sending Rex a final farewell message.

The woman gave Rex an unidentifiable look, but he could barely hear her say something through the glass, more focusing on reading her lips.

_Ja-ana nokeil. Ejibala._

Rex didn't know what she was saying, he couldn't speak the language. Rex continued to struggle against his bonds, desperately wishing he could go in the small room and save them.

Finally, Rex met the eyes of the child. He gave Rex the barest of waves with his hand.

The six orange-yellow circles in the back of the room began heating faster, until white-hot flames shot out of their centers.

Rex instantly shut his eyes, but he couldn't drown out the terrible screams coming through the glass.

"Nope, you're going to watch this entire thing," the Lizard said, lashing the electro whip across Rex's torso. "Any of you close your eyes, and you get a shock, understood?" He said, whipping the electro whip across Kiki's shoulder.

Rex wished he didn't see the charred flesh, or see the blood that still managed to soak the ground as the prisoners burned. He wished he couldn't see how the clone was still trying to protect the mother and her child, and how the mother was cradling her son in her lap as they all screamed while they were being burned alive.

The laughter of the two Lizards wracked inside Rex's head as he was forced to watch three innocent people get burned to death. He was screaming, they were all screaming—everyone— but for two very different reasons.

A smoky haze began filling the small room, and the acrid scent of burning plastoid and flesh made Rex's eyes water and throat sting. The smell alone was making him nauseous, and the gruesome sight that was in the burning room was enough to make him actually want to throw up.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, the flames died down to glowing circles on the back wall. Rex sat, shaking, in his chair, the smoke burning the back of his throat. The image of the black lumps on the ground in the room burned holes in Rex's mind. Rex didn't remember the trek back to the cell, or getting chained to the wall. He felt completely hollow. Right then, Rex lost hope that they would make it out, and he wasn't the first.

Three people had died a horrible death.

And it was his fault.


	14. Broken

Each day, the Kirzmin Lizards took someone new for "special interrogations", and each day, they would come back bloodied, beaten, and scarred beyond physical appearance.

When Edger came back, he could barely speak and had small dots of blood on his black undersuit. Needles.

Marik came back shaking uncontrollably, bruises lining his face and neck. Dried blood made his undersuit stick to his wounds.

Each person not only went through physical tortures, but psychological pain as well.

The fact that their armor and helmets were so close—in the same room, gathered in a corner—but they had no way of reaching it, made the team's hope of survival shrink smaller and smaller to almost non-existence.

Ratchet was tortured so horribly he was almost pushed to a point of mental vacancy. He was completely unable to speak, only muttering to himself and recoiling whenever someone came too close.

Even when they escaped, they were always dragged back to the same cell, with the bloody floor and rusty metal bracings.

They'd tried twice.

They'd failed twice.

And they suffered the consequences.

Slowly, the Lizards made their way down the line as they chose their new victim, sometimes taking them in groups of three.

On Day Seven, the Lizard stopped in front of Nirisa. "I think I'll take her…she's definitely going to be a lot of…fun…" the Lizard hissed, reaching for Nirisa's lock.

"No! Leave her alone! Don't touch her!" Kiki yelled, trying in vain to help her twin.

Nirisa struggled against the Lizard's iron grip, even going so far as to try and use the Force on him. In response, the Lizard kicked a heavy, clawed foot into Nirisa's side, effectively stilling her movements. "Sit still, and I might not make this too painful," he hissed, dragging her through the doorway.

"Give her back you son of a—" Kiki had every intention to break the shackles and rip out the Kirzmins' throats. She barely managed to leap into a low crouching position, her arms pulling painfully behind her, before a sharp metal pole was jabbed into her stomach, sending a frenzy of electricity through her nervous system. "AAARGH!" Kiki slumped dejectedly against the cold bloody stone behind her, her racing heart sending too much blood to her head. The last image she remembered of Nirisa before she was taken was the look of raw terror in her once bright green eyes, her bloody hand outstretched toward Kiki for help.

That image would never be erased from Kiki's mind.

"Shut up you!" the Lizard yelled, jabbing Kiki's shackles with the electro staff again, and subsequently electrifying everyone else.

Cord struggled to control his breathing, multiple ribs having been cracked and broken during his "special interrogation". The humidity in the sweltering room wasn't helping with his struggle.

"Aw, too hot for ya?" the Lizard hissed, feigning sympathy for Cord.

Cord leveled a steady glare at the Lizard, managing to mask his pain. He didn't say anything.

"Shi'lim," the Lizard said, bringing a comm. up to his mouth, "bring in the hose, it seems our prisoners are getting a little…uncomfortable."

The rusty metal door creaked open, spreading the now familiar dim yellow light over the prisoners.

"Brought it," the Lizard said, sounding surprisingly young compared to the others.

 _Of course_ , Kiki thought, watching the two work warily. _They train their monsters at a young age._

The first Lizard aimed the hose at the dirty rock floor, letting water drip and pool just before his feet. "Let me show you what happens when you don't do as you're told," he said, his accent drawing out some of the words. The hose began gushing out more water, spraying the prisoners in cold, salty wetness.

Kiki didn't care. It was the cleanest water they'd had to drink in the dungeon.

The salt in the cold liquid began stinging the wounds on Kiki's chest and abdomen, and he clothing was now thoroughly soaked. She looked to her left, where Jax remained, and saw that he was going through the same thing, along with everyone else.

"And now for the _real_ punishment." Taking the electro staff in hand, he activated the end, purple electricity crackling dangerously in the air.

In that same second, Kiki realized what it was meant for.

The staff stabbed into the ground, and the electricity raced along the path of salt water from the floor to the prisoners.

The pain that Rex was feeling was even worse than he could have imagined, the salty water having magnified the intensity of the shock. He could feel his body begin to shake uncontrollably as bright lights swam in front of his eyes. Rex couldn't tell if he was screaming, or whether the blood curdling noise was only in his head.

The only thing he wanted was for the pain to stop.

Without warning, the flash of electricity stopped, and all Rex was left with was a throbbing headache.

The Lizard exited through the door and closed it, leaving his prisoners in complete dark once again.

All Kiki could hear was the ragged breathing of not only herself, but the rest of the clones by her side. She laid her head back against the cold wet stone, willing her heart rate to stop thudding so furiously.

The metal door creaked open again, and the limp body of Nirisa was thrown on the ground before them. She was still alive, although her breaths came in uneven puffs, as if she were about to begin hyperventilating.

"Nirisa…Nirisa!" Kiki said, straining against the chains keeping her to the walls.

"What did you do to her—AAAH!" Kiki was instantly silenced, the first Lizard having gotten tired of her constant yelling.

The Lizard initially ignored her, roughly dragging Nirisa by the wrists to her chains on the wall. Nirisa didn't answer, but she flinched whenever the Lizard came near. "I must say, that was fun," he hissed, chuckling at Nirisa's reaction.

Cold dread clamped on Kiki's gut, only fueling her rage further. She lunged for the Lizard in front of Nirisa, standing to her full height—albeit slightly bent. "You bastards! You'll pay for what you—AARGH!" Another shot of electricity cut Kiki off mid-sentence. She fell back against the wall of the dungeon.

"Keep talking, and we'll do the same thing that we did to her, understand?" the Lizard hissed, coming dangerously close to Kiki.

Kiki couldn't hide the fear on her face as she saw the evil intent in the Lizard's eyes.

He spun and walked back through the door, almost whipping Kiki in the face with his tail. Kiki flinched and pressed back against the wall, watching Nirisa for any signs of movement other than the curled up position she had taken.

Nirisa's tunic and pants were torn, and covered in more blood than before she had been taken. Despite her completely still position was only compromised by the slight shaking, and her usually bright green eyes were dull, hollow, and filled with terror.

"Nirisa…" Kiki said dejectedly, her name coming out barely above a whisper.

Nirisa flinched, but didn't otherwise acknowledge her, as even hearing anything hurt.

Even though Kiki knew it was completely un-Jedi like, she could help the desolation she was feeling.

That day, Kiki would never be the same again.

She lost hope.

**Day 8**

"Up, you slugs have a visitor!" the Lizard hissed, kicking them awake.

When Kiki awoke, she thought that she must have been dreaming.

Old Man knelt before them, bruised with an eye almost completely swollen shut, but smiling nonetheless. "Hello, Kiki. Rex," he said, nodding to them in turn. "Where's Anakin?"

"Old Man! You're alive!" Kiki exclaimed, hardly paying attention to what he had said earlier. "We don't know where Anakin is…" She cast a dirty look in the direction of the Kirzmin guard behind Old Man. He growled in return, but otherwise didn't move.

"Oh, that's a shame…" Old Man said, sounding genuinely upset. "But, don't worry, help will be here—"

"Shut it, you old man!" the guard said, poking him in the back with him electro staff. Old Man crumpled to the dirty ground, temporarily overtaken by the spasms of electrocution.

"No! Stop!" Kiki instantly yelled, lurching forward on her chains again.

Old Man lay still for a moment, then steadily got back on his knees. "That feels worse than I remember…" he muttered under his breath.

"Why haven't they killed you yet?" Cord said, speaking for the first time since their arrival at the underground torture room. His voice cracked in the middle of his sentence.

"That's exactly what I'm wondering…" the guard muttered under his breath.

"I know too much for them to kill me," Old Man said, smirking while he tapped his temple.

"Okay time's up!" the guard immediately said, yanking Old Man backwards.

"I'll see you kids later!" he called, before the door slammed shut.

Despite the fact that they had no chances of making it out alive, Kiki couldn't help but smile at Old Man's almost ridiculous enthusiasm.

**Day 9**

Rex felt the cold stone help with his slight headache, but other than that, his entire body was screaming in agony. He tried to breathe around the aching in his chest, but that was almost impossible.

The metal door creaked open, and almost instinctively, Rex flinched back, waiting for the pain that he knew was inevitable.

"Wake up, the lot of you!" The Lizard said, shocking them all to consciousness.

Rex was suddenly alert, albeit scared, as he watched the Lizard make his way towards them.

"Get up, we're taking you to the Smoke House," the Lizards said, seemingly pleased with the idea.

Rex doubted the Smoke House was somewhere they held roasted nerf steaks. He knew better than to try and fight back, they were bigger and stronger, and had all of the torture devices, while Rex was severely underweight and barely able to stand on his own. Rex was harshly dragged upward, the sudden movement pulling the cuts he had in his sides and shifting the bones that were broken. Rex groaned in protest, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. His dirty boots dragged against the dirt floor of the dim hallway. Rex had only ever seen it twice, when they'd tried to escape and find Anakin. He heard another door open, and then close—it was wooden. They entered a small room, with what looked to be glass facing another area. Chairs were already set up in a curved pattern, all facing the window.

Rex could feel a sort of stone drop into the bottom of his stomach. He was getting the feeling this form of torture would be worse than the others. He was forced into the wooden chair directly facing the window, Bliz on his left and Kiki on his right. It was odd, sitting in a chair after so many days of kneeling. The feeling in Rex's hands was coming back painfully, and he tried to rub them together before a Kirzmin guard yanked his hands back behind him, keeping Rec rooted and tied to the chair. To his right, Rex heard Kiki grunt in the effort to find a more comfortable position.

"You don't seem to like talking. Funny, I heard somewhere that humans could get…chatty," A Kirzmin Lizard said, walking slowly in front of the group of prisoners.

Nobody spoke.

"You're the Captain, am I right?" he said, flaunting the electro whip.

Rex stared the monster dead in the eye, but didn't open his mouth.

"Answer me," the Lizard hissed angrily, unleashing the whip across Ratchet, Jax, and Kiki, "Or your friends will pay the price."

"Yes, I am the Captain," Rex immediately answered, his voice sounding hoarser than he would have liked.

"Good," the Lizard said, apparently satisfied with this information. "Then these questions should be easy for you to answer."

"I don't speak to scum like you," Rex growled, adrenaline making his voice clearer. He could have easily said that Bliz was Commander, higher ranking than Rex, but Rex kept the thought to himself.

"Oh really?" the Lizard asked, suddenly interested.

Rex remained silent.

Suddenly, Rex found a scaly hand clamping down on his jaw, long fingernails digging into the skin. "Tell me where you currently have your troops stationed, and I _might_ let you live. Or, you could tell us the passcodes to the Republic database. Your choice."

Rex still kept his silence, instead choosing to glare at the Lizard dead in the eye.

The Lizard growled in annoyance in the back of his throat, much like the way Old Man did when he was annoyed—which was rare.

"Rex, don't say anything—" Kiki began, but was silenced when a clawed hand clamped around her throat.

"Remember that little promise I made you," the Lizard that brought them to the room said. "And don't forget it."

"If that's how it's going to be then…" the Lizard said, his voice dangerously low. "Bring in the solids and that copy."

Kiki and Nirisa knew enough about their home planet to know that "solid" meant anyone of a single species, since Verocians were generally a mixed species that got a name.

They had civilians.

Kiki felt cold fear run through her as three figures entered the room walled off by the glass, bound, gagged, and blind-folded.

"This is what you get for not doing as I told you, _clone_ ," the Lizard hissed.

The blinds, gags, and binds were taken off of the prisoner in the separate room. A Twi'lek woman held a small boy in her arms, and a clone trooper sat next to them, protectively. His eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the clones and Jedi.

"Turn it on!" the Lizard yelled above the noise the clone was making.

Six circles on the back wall that Rex hadn't noticed before began to glow an unnerving orange-yellow.

A fraction too late, he realized what they were for.

"No don't! I'll tell you what you want to know! Just please don't—"

"It's too late for that now," the Lizard hissed, his voice unremorseful.

Rex could see heat waves begin forming in the air, making Rex's stomach curl in fear.

The small Twi'lek boy crawled into his mother's lap, tears streaming down his face. The clone moved closer to the two of them, trying to shield the pair with his body.

Rex tried to lunge out of his seat, but he was roughly shoved back down when he moved. For one frozen second, he made eye contact with the woman, the clone, and the small boy.

The clone nodded, sending Rex a final farewell message.

The woman gave Rex an unidentifiable look, but he could barely hear her say something through the glass, more focusing on reading her lips.

_Ja-ana nokeil. Ejibala._

Rex didn't know what she was saying, he couldn't speak the language. Rex continued to struggle against his bonds, desperately wishing he could go in the small room and save them.

Finally, Rex met the eyes of the child. He gave Rex the barest of waves with his hand.

The six orange-yellow circles in the back of the room began heating faster, until white-hot flames shot out of their centers.

Rex instantly shut his eyes, but he couldn't drown out the terrible screams coming through the glass.

"Nope, you're going to watch this entire thing," the Lizard said, lashing the electro whip across Rex's torso. "Any of you close your eyes, and you get a shock, understood?" He said, whipping the electro whip across Kiki's shoulder.

Rex wished he didn't see the charred flesh, or see the blood that still managed to soak the ground as the prisoners burned. He wished he couldn't see how the clone was still trying to protect the mother and her child, and how the mother was cradling her son in her lap as they all screamed while they were being burned alive.

The laughter of the two Lizards wracked inside Rex's head as he was forced to watch three innocent people get burned to death. He was screaming, they were all screaming—everyone— but for two very different reasons.

A smoky haze began filling the small room, and the acrid scent of burning plastoid and flesh made Rex's eyes water and throat sting. The smell alone was making him nauseous, and the gruesome sight that was in the burning room was enough to make him actually want to throw up.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, the flames died down to glowing circles on the back wall. Rex sat, shaking, in his chair, the smoke burning the back of his throat. The image of the black lumps on the ground in the room burned holes in Rex's mind. Rex didn't remember the trek back to the cell, or getting chained to the wall. He felt completely hollow. Right then, Rex lost hope that they would make it out, and he wasn't the first.

Three people had died a horrible death.

And it was his fault.


	15. Escape

Anakin pressed his head into the cold stone of his separate interrogation room. They held him here because he was the "Chosen One"—as if that made him so much different from his comrades. The fact that he wasn't able to save his team mates made Anakin burn with anger, but under that was a sense of pain that they might not make it out of their predicament. He'd tried to escape before, but every time he was caught and thrown back in his cell. Anakin tightened his fist into hard balls. Right then, he could feel the pain that the others were going through, even worse than his own.

"Aw, what's wrong? Miss yer friends?" the lizard said, sounding slightly drunk. "Well, too bad! None of you will make it out of this!" The harsh electro whip cracked against Anakin's back again.

Anakin gritted his teeth and suppressed the scream that threatened to come out. The only sounds to be heard in the rock interrogation room were the harsh cracks of the electro whip and Anakin's heavy and uneven breathing.

"Well, you're a tough nut to crack, aint ya?" the Lizard hissed, holding the whip by his side.

"You…will pay for what you're doing to—" the whip silenced the rest of Anakin's threat.

"You must know by now that you have no hope of escaping," the Lizard's voice said, suddenly quiet. "You're friends are all dying, you feel it, don't you? They're not going to—"

Anakin had been subjected to physical, emotional, and mental torture. Every word the Lizard said grated on him, making him feel more hopeless and enraged at the same time. "SHUT UP!" Anakin yelled, unleashing the Force around him. A slightly satisfying, and slightly sickening thud was heard behind Anakin.

The lizard was dead.

Anakin knew it was only a matter of time before the guards outside of his cell would realize something had happened. A slight whining noise, like metal tearing, and then a tiny snap was all Anakin heard as he slowed his breathing.

Subconsciously, he realized that he had broken his chains.

Anakin rose to his full height, having been mostly standing when he was chained. Anakin stood stock still for a moment, listening to see if any other guards were arriving. Tentatively, after hearing nothing, he took one step forward, then another. He silently made his way to the door, laying his hand on the rusty handle. He turned it, wincing at the creaking noise it made.

He pushed open the large metal door.

Before stepping outside, he peeked his head around the corner, every fiber in his body on high alert. The dim hallway was illuminated by cheap ceiling lights every few feet, a few flickering as if threatening to go out.

He didn't see any guards.

Anakin stepped out onto the dirt floor of the hallway, keeping aware through the Force. The empty corridors seemed to echo his every move. Anakin made it to the first corner before he completely froze, and it wasn't because of the voices he heard on the other side.

He had no clue where he was going.

He'd literally just gotten out of his cell, this being only the second time he'd ever left, the first…he chose not to remember. And, before he could rush to save his comrades effectively, he had to locate where his lightsaber was.

_Damn it_ , Anakin thought angrily, peering again around the corner.

"Hey!" a voice behind him shouted. "Who are—oh no, the prisoner's escaped!"

Anakin whipped around to see two armored Kirzmin Lizard guards racing towards him, spears in their hands and electro whips at their sides. "How'd you get out of your cell?!"

Without even thinking, Anakin let the Force flow through him and out of his hands, sending the guards flying toward the opposite wall of the hallway.

"You there!" the Lizard guarding the door yelled, his partner close behind.

Anakin raised his arms in the air, his fists closing into tight balls. The Lizard guards rose into the air, grabbing at the invisible force around their necks. In no time at all, they were still and lifeless on the dirt floor. Anakin stepped over the bodies and stood in front of the rusty metal door. Inside, he could feel the pain coming off of the people. Taking a deep breath, he twisted the handle on the door, steeling himself for what he would find inside.

* * *

Old Man sat cross legged in his dingy little cell. The size and smell of the conditions didn't really bother him—he barely noticed half the time. A harsh knock sounded at the metal door keeping him barred inside.

"Hey Old Man! What're you doing in there? You're being awfully quiet; not planning on doing anything, are you?" a nephew of his said loudly through the door.

"Like he could do anything against us…" a second said.

_It's a little rude to refer to an elder as "_ Old Man _", don't you think?_ Old Man thought without a hint of annoyance. "I'm breathing, sonny. Just…breathing…" he said, his old voice croaking slightly.

"Crazy old man…" his nephew muttered.

Old Man ignored him, albeit he was smiling. From what he could gather, Anakin was making his way toward his friends. _Oh no, don't go left, go right—yep, that's it,_ Old Man thought encouragingly. "Ah…almost there…" he said, opening his eyes and looking to the rusty metal door directly across from him. He stood, gathering his cane in his hands, preparing himself for what he knew would come next. "It's just a matter of time now…"

* * *

Obi-wan looked to the cave in front of him, Tryz the medic by his side. He knew that it was going to be pure hell down there, and that their reinforcements were far below par. He was trusting that the reinforcements he had called for almost an hour ago would appear before they'd made it too far into the dungeon. "All right men, let's move," Obi-wan ordered, swinging his arm forward.

It wasn't normally like him to take battles into his own hands like this.

The small band of men behind him switched on their head lamps, lighting up the dark passage way ahead of them. Before Obi-wan stepped into the cave, however, he looked up to the tall palace that lay to the west, not far from where he was standing—he could count windows if he wanted to.

_Why haven't they attacked the palace?_ He wondered, eyeing the dark sky warily for any space craft, Separatist or Republic. He then realized that the Queen of Verocia must have been already evacuated to an underground bunker.

Or at least he hoped so. He knew Verocians—females in particular—could be stubborn.

_I just hope she isn't trying to defend the palace. She'd better be somewhere safe._ If there was one thing Obi-wan knew from when Kiki was first brought to the Temple, it was that he mother was persistent. Following the last of the clones into the cave, he turned his back on the palace and entered the dark maw of the opening.

* * *

Anakin fully pushed open the door, the heavy metal structure making a creaking noise as it opened.

No amount of training could have prepared him for what he saw.

The first thing to hit him was the smell, the over powering scent of old and new blood barely covering the other odors. Just beyond the light, he could see the emaciated bodies of two Jedi and a few clones. Carefully, Anakin stepped inside the interrogation room, and like a punch in the gut he realized that his team mates had had it worse off than him. They were considered "expendable" because _he_ was the Chosen One.

This revelation only filled Anakin with a new burning fury.

"Rex, can you hear me? Rex?" Anakin knelt in front if his second in command.

"G-general Skywalker?" Rex asked shakily, cracking his eyes open.

Anakin almost started at the completely vacant, hollow look in them. Beyond broken, and almost beyond repair.

"Yeah buddy, it's me," he said quietly, using the Force to break the rusty metal shackles on Rex's wrists. His arms instantly dropped to his sides, and Anakin heard a small crack as Rex's arms were forced out of a position he'd been in for days.

"How…how did you—" Rex tried to say around the pain.

"Just take it easy, buddy," Anakin said, hauling Rex up and slinging his arm over his shoulder.

"The...the others…they…" Rex squeezed his eyes shut.

_Wow, stubborn man_ , Anakin thought. Slowly, he made his way to the opposite wall, and settled Rex down there. "Don't worry, I'm going to get them. Just _rest_ Rex," Anakin said, making it an order without directly stating it.

Rex mumbled something along the lines of "yessir" and let his head fall back against the stone wall.

Next, Anakin went up to Kiki. "Kiki, get up," he whispered, also breaking her shackles with the Force.

"Hmm…what?" Kiki asked groggily. Suddenly, her eyes flew open. "Anakin?!" she said too loudly. "How did you—mmph!"

"Quiet!" he said, pushing a hand over her mouth. "Help me with the others."

Laboriously, Kiki managed to get up to her feet, but immediately stumbled. She pushed away Anakin's offer of help and crawled to Jax's place. "I'm fine."

Anakin couldn't help but give Kiki a look behind her back. _Stubborn as always._ He moved on to Cord's bonds.

"Jax, wake up!" Kiki said, involuntarily putting a hand on Jax's face as she broke his shackles with the Force.

Jax's eyes instantly flew open. Kiki was _in front of him_. How was that possible? She was three people down when he'd last seen, and she was supposed to be chained to the wall the way he was. "General…?"

"It's okay Jax, Anakin came to get us out of here," she said quietly while she concentrated the Force on his bonds.

None of what she was saying was making much sense to Jax; her hand on his face was too distracting. Part of him wished she would keep it there; her hand was so soft and warm—

_Get a hold of yourself! You're being ridiculous!_ Jax berated himself, not taking his eyes off of Kiki. Even still, his breathing was starting to get out of control, which didn't help much with his already sore chest.

He didn't realize his hands had been freed until Kiki took them in hers. "Are you okay? Is it getting harder for you to breathe?" Her concern was easily evident in her deep purple eyes.

_Yes. Yes it is._ Jax thought wryly. "Uh…no, General Jorani. I-I'm fine." Lie. Jax took a deep breath to calm his frenzying heart. Jax forced his hands not to start twitching nervously the way they did when Kiki was this close.

"Can you stand?" she asked, seemingly moving even closer. Her hands still grasped his fiercely, and Jax realized she was trying to rub some feeling back into them. Her blood-covered and scratched hands still remained soft and calloused at the same time.

"I think so…" Jax replied barely paying attention to his surroundings. _But I can definitely feel my hands now_ , he thought.

Kiki stood back and pulled him up, grunting as she did.

"You're hurt, you shouldn't be doing this," Jax said, half way up the wall. _Yeah, no kriff_ , the more logical part of his brain said. He stood up the rest of the way on his own. He looked around at the rest of the men, all freed from chains.

Except for Nirisa.

"Nirisa, I'm only trying to help," Anakin said, reaching up to pull on her shackles.

Nirisa pushed herself further back into the wall, resisting Anakin's help. Nirisa's body shook as she tried to move away from Anakin, the fear purely evident in her eyes.

"Anakin, let me," Kiki said, kneeling carefully in front of Nirisa. Kiki felt a twist in her gut when she saw the extent of the damage the Lizards had done to Nirisa. She couldn't even be near her own sister without trembling. Nirisa pulled her knees closer to her chest.

"Nirisa, it's okay," Kiki said, slowly reaching up to break the chains with the Force.

Nirisa kept a wary eye on Kiki when the chains broke, but otherwise didn't say anything. Shakily, Nirisa stood, balancing herself against the grimy wall.

"Are you okay?" Kiki asked, daring to take a step forward.

Nirisa nodded. "Yes." Her voice cracked, and she didn't move from her position.

Anakin suddenly snapped up, pulling something in his chest, but he ignored the pain and focused on what he was getting in the Force. "Someone's coming!" he hissed, diving behind the heavy metal door.

The group of injured prisoners huddled in the shadows created by the open doorway, Anakin directly parallel to the door in the shadows.

"Hey! Where are the prisoners?!" A Lizard guard said, not seeing Anakin to his immediate left, hidden in the shadows.

"What do you mean where are they? They should be right here!" A second guard pushed past the first into the room. He scanned around at the empty stations where the prisoners used to be.

Kiki's face was just visible beyond the edge of the door, but only at an angle that Anakin could see. He made a movement to tell her to move back behind the door.

The Lizard in the room immediately spun around and stared Anakin in the eye. "They're—!"

His sentence was cut off by a sharp twist of the neck, and he crumpled to the ground. Dead.

"Kal'churi? Kal'churi!" the second Lizard scrambled to his dead comrades body, sounding almost…sad.

Anakin almost felt guilty for killing Kal'churi. Almost.

Kiki took out the second Lizard with relative ease and without a second thought. "Come on, let's go," she said, helping Rex get to his feet. The rest of the group followed quickly behind.

As silently as possible, they made their way through the corridors, searching through each room to find their lightsabers and gear. Their slow progress was starting to make Anakin nervous.

"We don't even know where we're going, do we?" he asked eventually.

"Nope," Kiki said from where she supported Rex as they trudged along.

"Where are all the guards?" Edger asked, his voice sounding scratchy and dry.

"Either they're dead, or they're looking for us," Kiki said, lowering her voice the slightest.

Their conversation barely registered with Nirisa; she was too busy with the message the Force had given her before they entered this horrible place. She was beginning to sorely regret not telling Kiki what she saw in her vision, but she didn't want her sister to start freaking out over something that hadn't even happened yet.

Marik walked beside Nirisa silently, his bloodied boots scuffing lightly against the ground. Nirisa liked Marik, he was always smiling and laughing about something, and he had a sort of boyish enthusiasm about him that made everybody happy—except for now. Marik's eyes had a hollowed and empty look to them, and Nirisa could see that he was still shaking, however much he tried to subconsciously control it. His eyes were solely fixed on the dirt ground under his feet, not registering anything around him. Nirisa felt sorry for him. "Marik?" she asked quietly, hoping to break him out of his silence.

No response.

"Marik?" Nirisa moved closer to him. She thought she saw his eyes briefly flick over to her, but in the dim hallways, it was hard to tell anything. Gently, she slipped her hand into his rough and cracked one. She saw his body stiffen, but slowly he returned the gesture and gripped her hand.

Nirisa was regretting more and more not telling Kiki about her vision, feeling that it would affect everyone now instead of just her.

"This is one of the last doors in this area," Anakin said quietly. He could sense a life-form on the other side of the door, although the details were fuzzy. _Did they take other prisoners?_ Anakin wondered, feeling a stone of dread drop in his gut. He hoped not.

The door swung inward, and there Old Man stood, cane in hand and a smile on his face. "I knew you would come for me," he said simply.

"Old Man!" Anakin exclaimed, surprised that they would actually find the pacifistic Lizard.

"Well, hello there, Anakin!" he greeted. "Come along, standing won't help us find your weapons, now will it? This way, kids!" Old Man hobbled down another corridor, not looking back to see if they were following.

Anakin couldn't help but smile at Old Man's misplaced enthusiasm. He followed the old Lizard down another set of corridors until they came upon a metal door much like the one that held them captive.

"Here should be your armor and weapons," Old Man said, stepping back to let Anakin use the Force on the door.

The heavy metal structure slammed inward, almost falling off its hinges. Carefully, Anakin stepped inside the dimly lit room. Shelves lined the walls, and racks took up most of the interior. "My lightsaber!" Anakin picked up the silver tube, instantly feeling safer with the weight in his hand.

Slowly, with Kiki's help, Rex made his way over to one of the racks, where he picked up his helmet. "Glad to see this again," Rex said quietly. He looked to the neatly stacked pile of the upper half of his armor; chest plate and all.

"I'll help you," Kiki said, picking up the bottom half of his chest plate. With painstakingly slow movements, she helped Rex suit up in the rest of his armor. She couldn't help but notice how spacey his armor was on him; almost an entire four centimeters was between his undersuit and the back of his armor. Kiki picked up her own lightsaber, gripping the familiar hilt in her dirty palm. Without her belt, she would have to hold it in her hand while they made their escape.

"Are we ready?" Old Man said, having remained silent up until then. "Alrighty then. I'll show you the way out."

* * *

Obi-wan walked down the dim corridors, heading deeper and deeper the farther they went. He could sense multiple life forms ahead of him, and he had his lightsaber in hand, prepared for the worst.

Up until then, they'd met little resistance from the Kirzmin Lizards. It didn't really work for them that they traveled in pairs to guard the underground caverns. "Tryz, do you have any life forms on your scanners?"

"Yes sir. And all but three are human. I think we've found our missing team," the medic said, covering his enthusiasm with a serious tone.

"Where are they?" Obi-wan said, stopping at a fork in their path.

It was a moment before Tryz answered. "Down this way, sir," he said, pointing to the left. "Unfortunately, we're not in range to try and contact them."

Obi-wan acknowledged him with a nod, and turned down the left corridor. "Well then, let's get in range."

* * *

Anakin followed Old Man down what seemed like another random corridor. The air was definitely getting cooler, a sign that they were almost out.

"How much longer?" Kiki asked, still supporting Rex as they trudged along.

"It shouldn't be far," Old Man answered, his cane making a light _tap-tap_ on the dirt floor.

Suddenly, Anakin froze in his place.

"What's wrong?" Kiki asked, also stopping.

"I think…Ob-wan's down here!" Anakin said, taking off at break-neck speed down a corridor.

"Anakin! Wait up!" Old Man yelled to no avail. "Oh dear…"

Anakin sprinted down another corridor, following the signal he was getting in the Force. Right when he rounded a corner, he almost slammed full-force into Obi-wan.

"Anakin!" Obi-wan exclaimed, startled by the sudden appearance of his former Padawan. "What are you doing here?"

"We managed to escape, and now we're trying to find a way out," Anakin explained, breathing heavily. _After all, third time's the charm._ "The rest are behind me. Somewhere…"

"I've achieved contact with Captain Rex, sir. They're not that far from us," Tryz said. "They're down the way General Skywalker just came from."

"Alright, then let's go meet them," Obi-wan said, heading in the direction Anakin just came from.

They didn't have to go far, the group was close behind.

"Please don't do that again," Kiki said, huffing slightly. "Master Kenobi?!"

"We need to get out of here, and quickly. I'm sensing that we've picked up some followers," Obi-wan said, glancing wearily down the hall. "Come, let's go."

They had been walking for a little over an hour when Anakin began getting uneasy about the tail they were picking up.

"The number keeps growing, Master," he said quietly.

"I know, but we're almost out of this place. Right?" Obi-wan turned to Old Man.

"Yep, almost out," Old Man answered. At almost the exact same time as the four Jedi, he stiffened. "Everybody get down!" And not too late, too; red blaster fire erupted from the end of the hallway they were headed toward.

Obi-wan was the first to leap into action, having been the least injured of all the Jedi. Heavily armored Kirzmin Lizards raced down the hall towards them, hissing and growling as they took out their small amount of troopers.

Kiki activated her lightsaber next, striking down the Lizard that tried to overrun her. Unfortunately, that meant she had to leave Rex balanced against a wall, which subsequently only left him with one had to shoot. The only thing keeping him up, besides the wall, was pure adrenaline.

As if they were one, the group turned down a random corridor, trying to take out the Lizards in front of them as quickly as possible. Kiki didn't let the fact that she was reaching up to one hundred kills bother her—not then, at least. The Lizards were monsters, and that was that.

"General, behind you!" Tryz called out.

Each of the Jedi spun around, but it was Kiki he was warning. The first thing she saw was a flash of dark green scales, and then she felt claws begin to dig into her shoulders, with disturbingly sharp and bright white teeth flashing in her face. Kiki didn't even think; she thrust he lightsaber into the chest of the Lizard, and she watched as it crumpled to the ground.

Their group was getting pushed farther and farther back into the unknown corridor. She watched in horror as Bliz took a shot to the shoulder. "Bliz!" she called above the din.

"I'm fine sir!" he yelled back, continuing firing with both arms.

Kiki continued slashing down the Kirzmin Lizards, keeping an eye on each member or their dwindling team.

What she didn't see was the Lizard that charged straight toward her, blaster in hand and snarl in its throat.

Kiki felt herself tripping over something. It could have been a stone, or a body, or her own two feet. All she did know was that she was going down, and that she probably wasn't going to make it once she hit the ground. Kiki's back slammed into the dirty ground, upsetting the injuries on her back. She saw the Lizard loom before her, a dark figure in an already dim hallway. Kiki wasn't entirely prepared to die, but if she did, she hoped it would be a quick death. She didn't want to be ripped apart they way she'd seen some of her clones die.

The Lizard aimed it's blaster at her, aiming directly for her chest. _Good, a quick death then._ She saw its scaly finger close over the trigger, heard the distinctive _click_ as the trigger was pressed.

But the shot never came.

There was a second shadow in front of her, this one much shorter than the Lizard that almost killed her.

Old Man.

His small body crumpled to the ground with a groan.

"No! Old Man!" Kiki screamed. She turned him over, relieved to see he was still breathing, although she knew it wouldn't be long.

"Kiki…" Old Man said, his voice barely above a cracked whisper. "Keep fighting…"

"No, don't do this! We're going to make it out of here—" Kiki hated the way her voice was cracking. Her vision was beginning to get blurry, smudging the image of Old Man.

"Kiki…there's good inside you…you just haven't found it yet…" he said, his hazy yellow eyes unfocusing.

"Please don't go…I'm so sorry…" Kiki pleaded, tears fully blurring her sight.

But, it was too late.

He was dead.

"Kiki we have to move!" Anakin's voice cut like a knife through Kiki's thoughts.

Shakily, she stood to her feet and reactivated her lightsaber. She didn't feel right leaving Old Man's body in the middle of the hallway. Nothing then felt right. Kiki was completely numb while she tried not to let the guilt of Old Man's death get to her.

Their still dwindling group began to get pushed back into an alcove that looked much like a small nursery.

The Force was trying to tell Kiki something, the darkness weighing heavily on her chest. She struggled to focus as she cut down the Lizards that tried to attack her. In the corner, she saw Tryz get shot, his limp body slumping against the wall.

Behind Kiki, Nirisa was starting to get surrounded by Kirzmin Lizards, all of whom were armed with blasters. Kiki tried to move to help cover her sister, but she was getting surrounded, too. The only one who wasn't having a problem was Anakin.

"Anakin!" Kiki yelled above the din. He looked up and made eye contact. He'd heard her, but he didn't look like he wanted to listen at the moment. _He probably hates me for letting Old Man die._ "Anakin, you have to help Nirisa!" She cast a worried glance back to her sister. Nirisa was in desperate need of help; Lizards were beginning to form a circle around her. "Anakin!"

Anakin didn't move, taking down the Lizards that came toward him. Slowly, he started moving backward to Nirisa's position.

At his rate, he wasn't going to make it in time.

"Nirisa!" Kiki watched in horror as a laser shot straight through Nirisa's stomach. "Nirisa!" Kiki struck down the last Lizard without a second thought, racing toward her fallen sister. She skidded to a stop and knelt by her unmoving body.

"Kiki…? Is…is that you? I…can't see anything…" Nirisa croaked. She held a hand over the blaster mark in her stomach.

"Nirisa, hang on. We're going to make it out of this. Just hang on—"

"No…Kiki…you have to go…." Nirisa's eyes were defocusing, taking on a glazed look.

"Nirisa…" Tears threatened as Kiki held Nirisa's cooling body.

"I love you little sis…don't forget that…" Nirisa's head fell to the side, the life completely gone from her.

Kiki remembered she used to hate when Nirisa called her "little sis"—it only made more evident that she was the younger twin when they were going through their teenaged years. But now, Kiki wished she wouldn't stop, if only to hear Nirisa's voice again and know she was still alive.

Underneath the pain and the loss that Kiki was feeling, she also felt a burning anger towards everything: the Lizards, the Sith, the Jedi, the war itself. It wasn't fair; Nirisa had never done anything wrong in her life. If anything, it should be Kiki who was lying dead in her sister's arms.

From that point on, Kiki had a hazy memory of what happened next.

All she could remember was taking Nirisa's lightsaber in her hand, igniting it, and using that along with her own weapon for mass destruction. She cut down almost anything that moved, close to relishing in the pain she was causing her enemies. Kiki didn't care if they were armed or not—she was sure she heard a few Lizards beg for mercy before she decapitated them. It was too late for them; they didn't have to choose what they did for a living. They could have chosen the peaceful life like Old Man did, avoided all of this bloodshed.

At least, that was Kiki's reasoning.

She was partially aware of someone calling her name in the background, but she didn't care to hear, and she didn't bother to try and focus. One Lizard tried to attack her full-force—a mistake that cost him an eye and most of his face. He crumpled to the ground, and only then did Kiki realize that he was the General of the Kirzmin Lizards, the one who had been doing most of the torturing. _Well, glad to be rid of him_ , Kiki thought, moving on to her next target. She was blindly slashing, letting her roiling emotions control all of her actions.

Upon her next target, Kiki froze.

It was a child.

Part of Kiki was screaming at her to finish the job, because child or not, it was a Lizard, and the Lizards caused pain. Another part was screaming to stop what she was doing, that it wasn't right to be killing life forms— _people_ —so mercilessly.

Kiki looked into the eyes of the Lizard child; saw the pure fear and terror in its glowing yellow eyes. A hand close around Kiki's tightening fist, and she jerked, almost swinging her lightsaber into Jax.

His chest rose and fell with the effort of breathing, and his hand tightened over hers, not in confrontation. He'd been watching the entire time, looking for an entrance to try and calm her down. "General…" Jax said quietly.

One of the lightsabers fell from Kiki's hand, deactivating and clattering to the dusty ground. Her breath caught in her throat at the realization at what had just happened, and she tripped and fell on the floor, breathing heavily.

"General, we have to get moving. Republic bombers are coming, and they're going to blow this place. We need to go _now_." Jax pulled Kiki up, grabbing her other lightsaber before they left. The number of Kirzmin Lizards had dwindled greatly, but they still came through the single doorway. Their four remaining clones—not including Crusade Squad—blasted their way through the enemy.

Cool air was rushing in from the exit of the tunnel, and for the first time in weeks, Kiki was able to look up at the stars, and see the different moons of Verocia. Off to her left was the main palace of Verocia, small enemy bombers floating around it.

Lizards poured out of the opening behind them, hissing and growling as they clawed the ground.

Kiki turned around, but didn't activate her lightsaber. Something was bothering her. "We can't leave her," she said quietly.

"General we have to—" Jax tried to step in front of Kiki and fire at the oncoming Lizards.

"No! We can't leave her body here!" Kiki began running for the entrance, but an armored arm instantly wrapped around her waist.

"General, we have to go!" a clone's voice said near her head.

"No! We can't leave her!" Kiki struggled against the arm around her waist. Another hand came to grab her arm as she swung out at the trooper. "Let me go!"

Obi-wan's comm. beeped before he could try to restrain Kiki. "Yes?" he said, the impatience loud and clear in his voice.

"General Kenobi, enemy bombers are hovering around the palace, and the queen refuses to evacuate. She insists on staying to help with the fight," the clone on the other end said.

"Tell her to evacuate immediately. The mountain is going to be bombed, and I don't want her in the palace in case one of our fighters misses," Obi-wan said above the noise of grenades going off. Now that they were outdoors, they were able to use heavier artillery. The grenades weren't the only things causing noise. A storm was coming, and wind was whipping violently through the trees.

"The queen says no, that it's her duty to help protect her people," the clone answered a moment later, the tiniest hint of pride and amazement evident in his voice.

It was too late; the enemy bombers flew down to the palace, some suicide bombing with their ships, other firing torpedoes and missiles.

Kiki was partially aware that above her screaming, the palace—the place she had lived in for the beginning years of her life, her _home_ —was being destroyed by the same monsters who had taken her family from her. The amount of loss was too much for Kiki to bear at that moment. She felt she was about to lose her mind as she watched her home burn to the ground.

She was aware that her mother was still inside.

Kiki couldn't breathe. She struggled, but the air wouldn't go in the way it was supposed to, instead choosing to get lodged in her throat.

"General, I need you to take steady breaths, you're hyperventilating. Just _breathe_ ," a clone said, kneeling by where Kiki was on the ground.

Kiki did the exact opposite.

She passed out.

* * *

At this moment, Kiki decided to leave the room, a pained look twisting her features as she practically ran from the room.

Jax instantly got up and followed her. It didn't matter anyway—the story was almost over.

Kiki closed the door before Jax could get out, but he still went through to find her. He didn't have to look far; she was sitting on the floor against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. Slowly, Jax clumsily sat down by her, moving as close as he dared.

It was a few minutes before either of them spoke.

"You didn't go very far," Jax said, immediately wanting to kick himself for it.

The barest of smiles flashed over Kiki's face, but it wasn't anywhere near reaching her eyes. Jax was about to try something else when she spoke. "That was just a great way to remind me of how much of a failure for a Jedi I am," Kiki said, her voice sounding barely above a whisper and close to tears. She turned her head to the left, back towards the door. She didn't want Jax to see her like this.

"You're not a failure," Jax said, sincerity in his voice. "Personally, I think you're one of the strongest Jedi I've met."

Kiki remained silent, but her hands closed tightly on her knees.

Jax scooted slightly closer, reaching up a slightly shaking hand to close it around Kiki's. _Marik probably would have had her in a Wookie hug by now_ , he thought a little sourly, a stab of jealousy going through him.

"I miss her so much…" Kiki said, her voice cracking. Unshed tears shined in her deep purple eyes, but they didn't fall.

"I…I miss her too," Jax said, gripping her hand tighter. He was telling the truth; Nirisa was a good Jedi, and while she was generally calmer and less of a loose cannon than her younger twin, she was a fierce fighter. Jax would have been glad to fight by her side again any day. Surprisingly enough, Kiki gripped his hand back, keeping it glued between them.

"I feel like this was my fault," she said, her fingers tangling in his.

Jax jumped, a tiny gasp escaping his lips before he could control it. Right then, Kiki needed a friend, and while he couldn't exactly think of himself as being a friend to his commanding officer, he was willing to comfort her however she needed. Jax hated seeing her in pain. Incrementally, Jax moved closer until their shoulders were shy of touching. He couldn't pretend he didn't see Kiki notice his move.

Kiki took a shuddery breath, her body shaking with the effort of restraining her tears. She hiccupped.

"General…it's okay…" Jax said quietly, keeping his firm grip on her hand.

A small sob escaped her lips, and she pressed herself closer to Jax, wiping her eyes with her free hand. She pressed her body even closer to his, and now the entire left side of Jax was against Kiki's right. Jax's hand went into the nervous twitching it did whenever he and Kiki were this close. But even then, he wanted nothing more than to wrap her into a tight "Wookie hug".

He settled for pressing his body closer.

Kiki thought back to two years earlier, when she had been fighting the people she'd considered "monsters". At that moment, she'd felt like a monster herself, the way she had enjoyed causing so many people pain. Kiki shuddered and felt Jax press her closer, probably mistaking her shaking for chills.

Her thoughts didn't mean she thought any different of the Jedi. She knew there were corrupt Jedi Masters—she'd had one. She'd seen what evil could do to people.

This war was monstrous.

And sometimes, it seemed to make no difference who got caught in the middle.

It was a war of monsters.

* * *


End file.
